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The 

One  Hundred  and  Five 
Martyrs  of  Tyburn 


BX 
1492 
.19 
1917 


IMST 


By  the 
ns  of  Tyburn  (Convent 


/ 


LIBRARY 


\ 


The  One   Hundred  and    Five 
Martyrs   of  Tyburn 


PRINTED  IN  ENGLAND  BY 
THE  WESTMINSTER  PRESS,  LONDON,   W. 


€f)e  IBeneDictme  9po0tle0  anD 

of  OEnglartD, 


Copyright,  St.  Bride's  Abbey,  Milford  Haven 


The   One    Hundred    and 
Five   Martyrs   of  Tyburn 

By  the  Nuns  of  Tyburn  Convent 

With  an  Introduction  by 
Dom  BEDE  CAMM,  O.S.B. 


BURNS  &  GATES,  LTD. 

28  Orchard  Street  ' 
London,  W 

1917    ; 


Yltbtl  ©&stat : 

H.    S.    BOWDEN, 

Censor  Deputatus. 

Imprimatur : 

EDM.  CAN.  SURMONT, 

Vic.  Gen. 


Westmonasterii,  die  8  Februarii,  1917. 


i  3  1999 


This  little  book  is  gratefully  dedicated  to  the 
Founders  and  Benefactors  of  Tyburn. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction  by  Dom  Bede  Camm,  O.S.B.  9 
Short  Biographies  of  the  One  Hundred  and 

Five  Martyrs  13 
Small  Guide  for  a  Visit  to  the  Oratory  of  the 

English  Martyrs  83 

List  of  Relics  91 

Some  Notes  on  Tyburn  Convent  96 
The  Vow  made  by  the  Community  of  Tyburn 

for  the  Conversion  of  England  102 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  Oratory  of  the  English  Martyrs  has 
become  a  Shrine  that  is  verydear  to  many 
devout  pilgrims.  Though  it  is  only  a  tem- 
porary one,  housed  in  a  room  which  is  far  from 
being  worthy  of  its  hallowed  memories,  it  has 
yet  a  character  and  dignity  of  its  own  which 
appeals  to  the  heart  and  stimulates  the  imagina- 
tion. 

It  is  now  some  years  since  a  few  devoted 
friends  of  Tyburn  took  it  upon  them  to  decorate 
and  enrich  this  little  Shrine,  so  that  it  might 
tell  more  vividly  the  story  of  those  great  souls 
who  consecrated  this  soil  with  their  blood. 

It  was  a  Benedictine  monk  who  first  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  overshadowing  the  altar  of 
sacrifice  with  a  presentiment  of  the  Triple  Tree 
of  Tyburn,  the  Holy  Rood  of  this  our  English 
Calvary.  It  was  another  Benedictine  who 
carried  out  his  ideas,  designed  the  Tree  with 
its  pendant  lamps,  the  altar  reredos  and  orna- 
ments which  make  so  strong  an  appeal  to  the 
lovers  of  our  Martyrs.  Not  only  this,  but  the 
work  itself  was  carried  out  in  the  Benedictine 

B 


io  INTRODUCTION 

workshops  at  Maredsous,  by  sons  of  that 
Belgian  Mother  then  on  the  very  threshold  of 
her  Martyrdom.  The  statues  of  our  Martyrs, 
the  lace-like  carving  of  the  canopies  (adopted 
from  a  famous  rood-loft  in  Devonshire),  the 
brazen  lamps,  the  rich  palm-embroidered  hang- 
ings, are  all  the  work  of  hands  belonging  to  a 
country  which  has  since  grasped  the  martyrs' 
palm.  It  was  thought  at  the  time  that  it  was  not 
inappropriate  that  Belgian  hands  should  work 
to  the  glory  of  those  who  had  found  on  Belgian 
soil  a  place  of  refuge  in  persecution,  a  school  of 
training  for  the  priesthood  and  the  crown.  But 
how  much  more  deeply  appropriate  does  it  seem 
to  us  now  ! 

It  was  a  Benedictine  Oblate  who,  in  generous 
and  devoted  love  for  the  Martyrs  of  Tyburn, 
furnished  the  necessary  funds,  at  the  cost  of 
great  self-sacrifice,  for  Tree,  Altar,  windows, 
reliquaries,  and  the  rest.  Benedictine  Abbeys 
gave  of  the  treasures  of  holy  relics  to  enrich  the 
Shrine  with  the  most  precious  of  all  gifts.  A 
Benedictine  monk  collected  them  from  many 
places,  where  they  had  long  been  cherished, 
and  Benedictine  Nuns  it  was  who  enshrined 
them  in  their  present  resting-places,  and  adorned 
them  with  the  skilled  labour  of  their  hands. 

And  thus  the  older  branches  of  the  Order 


INTRODUCTION  n 

have  helped  to  beautify  this  lowly  Shrine,  which 
is  confided  to  the  care  of  the  youngest,  but  not 
the  least  worthy,  of  the  many  religious  families 
who  own  St.  Benedict  as  Father  and  Patriarch. 

Those  who  visit  this  Sanctuary  are  asked  to 
pray  for  the  Benefactors  who  have  done  their 
part  in  the  work,  and  they  are  requested  also 
to  give  their  offerings  towards  the  building  of 
the  new  and  glorious  Sanctuary  which  some 
day  must  replace  this  little  lowly  Shrine. 

The  present  altar  ornaments  and  stained 
glass  will  all  be  retained  in  the  new  Chapel, 
and  will  show  to  far  greater  advantage  than 
they  can  in  their  present  cramped  surround- 
ings. 

Would  it  not  be  a  seemly  and  beautiful  me- 
morial to  our  glorious  dead, who  have  fallen  in  the 
present  war  if,  in  the  very  heart  of  London,  a 
sanctuary  of  unceasing  prayer  should  be  raised 
to  the  glory  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  in 
memory  of  the  Martyrs  of  England  ?  Here  at 
Tyburn  the  martyrs  of  the  olden  times  would 
clasp  hands  with  their  heroic  sons  of  to-day,  and 
around  the  Throne  of  the  Eucharistic  Lamb 
would  rise  unceasingly  from  the  alternate  choirs 
of  that  white-robed  host,  the  hymn  of  triumph 
and  victory,  the  Warriors'  song  of  peace. 

Thus    the    memories    of    the    crusaders    of 


12  INTRODUCTION 

Gallipoli  and  the  Egyptian  desert  and  of  the 
heroes  of  French  and  Flemish  battlefields  would 
be  linked  for  ever  with  the  fadeless  glory  of  the 
martyrs  who  won  their  palms  at  Tyburn  Tree. 
Their  names,  inscribed  on  the  walls  of  the 
sanctuary,  would  go  down  to  future  ages  linked 
inseparably  with  the  names,  still  more  glorious, 
of  those  who  taught  them  how  to  die.  And  the 
Chapel  of  the  English  Martyrs  would  remain 
an  imperishable  record  of  the  heroes  of  the 
Twentieth  as  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.'" 

This  is  but  a  dream  at  present,  but  one  that 
under  God's  Providence  may  yet  become  a  reality. 

Meanwhile  let  pilgrims  learn  at  Tyburn  that 
love  is  stronger  than  death,  and  sacrifice  more 
fruitful  than  possession. 

DOM  BEDE  CAMM,  O.S.B.,  C.F., 

3  IST  GENERAL  HOSPITAL, 
PORT  SAID,  EGYPT. 
August,  2o//>,  1916. 


*In  linking  the  names  of  the  heroes  of  the  present 
war  with  those  of  the  English  Martyrs,  it  is  not 
meant  to  imply  that  our  glorious  dead  are  martyrs  in 
the  technical  sense  of  "  dying  for  the  Faith,"  but 
that  they  sacrificed  their  lives  for  the  principle  of 
liberty,  justice,  patriotism,  and  religion,  consider- 
ing their  cause  the  cause  of  God. 


The   105   Martyrs  of  Tyburn 

26  Beatified — 79  Venerable. 

Benedictines  Venerable  7 

Carthusians  Beatified  7 

Bridgettine  „  i 

Franciscans  „  3 

Dominican  „  i 

Jesuits  Beatified  5 

„  Venerable  14 

Secular  Priests  Beatified  1 1 

„  „  Venerable  33 

Laymen  Beatified  2 

„  Venerable  18 

Gentlewomen  Venerable  2 

And  the  last  Tyburn  Martyr 

Archbishop                           Venerable  i 

Total  10 ; 


14     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

JANUARY  IITH,  1584. 
YEN.  WILLIAM  CARTER,  Layman. 

HE  was  a  Londoner,  and  a  Printer  and  Book- 
seller by  profession.  Zeal  for  the  dissemination 
of  Catholic  truth  was  the  cause  of  his  martyr- 
dom. A  series  of  imprisonments  interrupted  his 
work,  but  as  soon  as  he  recovered  liberty  he 
returned  to  the  task  of  spreading  literature  for 
the  exhortation  and  comfort  of  his  fellow 
Catholics.  This  he  achieved  with  great  diffi- 
culty owing  to  the  extreme  danger  of  the  times, 
and  it  is  said  that  his  Printing  Press  was  so  small 
that  he  could  hardly  print  more  than  one  page 
at  a  time,  while  some  books  he  copied  entirely 
by  hand.  He  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  his 
friends,  and  one  of  the  reasons  why  he  was  so 
cruelly  racked  when  finally  arrested,  was  that 
he  had  been  entrusted  with  the  custody  of 
Chalices  and  Vestments  whose  owners  he 
refused  to  betray.  At  the  trial,  the  chief  accusa- 
tion against  him  was  that  he  had  instigated  the 
Queen's  enemies  (Catholic  Englishwomen)  to 
murder  their  Sovereign.  A  Treatise  on  Schism, 
the  book  for  the  printing  of  which  he  was  con- 
demned, contained  a  paragraph  about  Judith 
and  "  Holofernes,  the  master  heretic,"  and 
this  it  was  affirmed  was  only  a  paraphrase 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  15 

indicating  Elizabeth.  While  the  jury  retired  to 
confer  on  the  verdict,  Carter  availed  himself  of  the 
opportunity  of  confessing  to  a  priest  who  was 
waiting  like  him  for  the  death  sentence.  The 
day  following  his  trial,  William  Carter  was 
dragged  to  Tyburn  and  there  hanged  and  quar- 
tered. 

JANUARY  21  ST,  1586. 

YEN.    EDWARD     STRANCHAM,     Secular 
Priest. 

YEN.  NICHOLAS  WOODFEN,  or  WHEE- 
LER, Secular  Priest. 

THE  first  of  these  Martyrs  was  an  Oxford  man, 
both  born  and  bred.  Shortly  after  taking  his 
Bachelor's  degree  at  St.  John's  College,  he 
became  a  convert  to  the  Catholic  Faith  and 
went  over  to  Douai  to  study  for  the  priesthood. 
He  returned  to  England  in  1581,  together  with 
NICHOLAS  WOODFEN.  The  latter  was 
born  at  Leinster.  His  true  name  was  Wheeler. 
While  lodging  in  Fleet  Street  he  ministered 
under  his  assumed  name  to  the  gentlemen  of 
the  Inns  of  Court,  whose  manner  of  dress  he 
adopted.  After  enduring  much  poverty  and 
persecution  for  five  years,  both  priests  were 
put  to  death  with  great  barbarity  on  the  same 
day. 


16    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

January  2ist,   1642. 

VEN.     BARTHOLOMEW    ALBAN    ROE, 
Priest,  O.S.B. 

VEN.  THOMAS  GREEN,  or  REYNOLDS, 
Secular  Priest. 

THE  Benedictine  Monk,  known  in  religion  as 
FATHER  ALBAN,  was  born  in  Suffolk  and 
brought  up  as  a  Protestant.  All  his  life  he  was 
full  of  zeal,  and  it  was  in  the  attempt  to  refute 
the  'errors'  of  a  man  imprisoned  at  St. 
Alban's  for  holding  the  Catholic  Faith  that  he 
received  the  initial  grace  of  his  own  conversion. 
After  this  interview,  in  which  his  adversary 
gained  the  victory,  he  was  never  at  peace  until 
he  found  himself  in  the  safe  port  of  the  True 
Church.  Having  entered  the  Benedictine  Order 
in  Lorraine,  he  prepared  himself  with  assiduity 
to  exercise  the  apostolate  in  England.  He  spent 
a  great  part  of  his  life  in  prison,  once  in  Maiden 
Lane,  afterwards  at  St.  Alban's,  whence  he  was 
removed  to  the  Fleet  Prison,  where  he  remained 
for  seventeen  years.  He  never  lost  his  dauntless 
gaiety,  and  amid  his  many  and  severe  sufferings 
of  mind  and  body  he  never  ceased  to  labour  for 

i 

souls. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  17 

YEN.  THOMAS  REYNOLDS  was  born  in 
Oxford,  and  studied  abroad  for  the  sake  of  the 
Catholic  Religion  no  longer  tolerated  in  his  own 
country.  He  returned  after  receiving  Holy 
Orders,  and,  passing  through  many  vicissitudes, 
he  was  condemned  to  death  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty  years,  fifty  of  which  he  had  spent 
in  the  ministry  of  the  priesthood.  His  com- 
panion in  martyrdom,  Father  Alban  Roe,  met 
him  with  a  cheerful  countenance  before  the 
hurdle  that  was  to  convey  them  both  to  Tyburn. 
The  two  martyrs  made  their  confessions  to  each 
other  and  recited  the  "  Miserere  '  alternately. 
'  Friend,  pray  let  all  be  secure  and  do  thy  duty 
neatly,  I  have  been  a  neat  man  all  my  life/'  the 
old  priest  said  to  the  executioner.  '  I  dare 
look  death  in  the  face,"  said  Father  Roe,  when 
they  would  have  bound  his  eyes. 

JANUARY  22ND,  1592. 
YEN.  WILLIAM  PATENSON,  Secular  Priest. 

HE  was  a  native  of  Durham  and  became  an 
alumnus  and  priest  of  Douai  College  during 
its  residence  at  Rheims,  and  was  sent  on  the 
English  mission  a  year  after  his  ordination. 
He  came  to  London  to  seek  counsel  in 
order  to  rid  himself  of  the  scruples  of  con- 
science with  which  he  was  troubled.  On  the 


i8    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

third  Sunday  in  Advent,  1591,  the  house  where 
he  was  staying  was  searched  by  constables  and 
churchwardens  and  sidesmen  of  the  Protestant 
Parish  Church  with  the  object  of  finding  which 
of  the  inmates  did  not  attend  the  services. 
Father  Patenson  was  seized  and  condemned 
at  the  first  session  held  after  Christmas.  The 
night  before  his  execution  he  was  put  into  the 
"  condemned  hole  "  with  seven  malefactors  who 
were  to  suffer  with  him  on  the  following  day. 
He  converted  six  of  them  and  helped  them  to 
make  their  peace  with  God.  The  persecutors 
were  so  enraged  at  the  profession  of  the  Catholic 
Faith  they  made  on  the  scaffold,  and  the  con- 
stancy with  which  they  accepted  an  ignomin- 
ious death  in  satisfaction  for  their  past  crimes, 
that  the  Martyr  was  treated  with  more  than 
usual  barbarity. 


JANUARY  241*1,  1679. 

YEN.  WILLIAM  IRELAND,  Priest,  SJ. 
YEN.  JOHN  GROVE,  Layman. 

YEN.  W.  IRELAND  was  born  in  Lincolnshire 
and  brought  up  at  St.  Omer's.  He  entered  the 
Society  of  Jesus  at  the  age  of  19.  He  had  the  re- 
putation of  possessing  a  wonderful  calm  and 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  19 

evenness  of  mind  on  all  occasions.  On  return- 
ing to  England,  he  was  apprehended  on  the  first 
breaking  out  of  the  Titus  Gates  Plot,  and  suf- 
fered much  from  the  loathsomeness  of  the  prison 
and  the  weight  of  his  iron  chains.  He  was 
brought  to  trial  with  several  others,  including 
JOHN  GROVE,  a  layman  employed  as  a 
servant  by  the  English  Jesuits  in  their  business 
about  town. 

Oates  and  Bedloe  swore  that  Father  Ireland 
had  been  present  at  a  consultation  held  in  August 
for  killing  the  King,  although  the  priest  brought 
many  to  witness  he  was  in  Staffordshire  at  the 
time.  Oates  and  Bedloe  also  swore  that  Grove 
was  appointed  to  shoot  the  King,  for  which  deed 
he  was  to  receive  a  preposterous  amount  of 
money.  On  Friday,  the  24th  of  January,  the 
martyrs  were  drawn  from  Newgate  to  Tyburn, 
and  were  abused  and  pelted  by  the  mob  all  the 
way.  They  endured  every  insult  with  cheerful 
patience,  and  died  forgiving  those  who  were 
guilty  of  their  blood,  and  praying  for  their  King 
and  Country. 


20    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

FEBRUARY  IST,  1645. 
YEN.  HENRY  MORSE,  Priest,  SJ. 

BORN  in  Suffolk  in  the  year  1595,  he  was  recon- 
ciled to  the  Church  at  the  age  of  twenty- three, 
and  received  Holy  Orders  at  Douai.  Being  sent 
on  the  English  Mission,  he  was  at  once  cap- 
tured, and  imprisoned  for  three  years  among 
felons  and  malefactors.  This  prison  was  at  the 
same  time  his  place  of  novitiate.  He  there 
prepared  himself  to  become  a  Jesuit,  and  a 
priest  of  the  Society  who  was  also  in  prison 
assisted  him  as  a  novice  master.  Ven.  Henry 
Morse  was  twice  banished  from  the  kingdom, 
but  found  means  to  return  and  devote  himself 
to  the  service  of  poor  Catholics  in  the  time  of 
the  Plague.  He  was  charged  with  "  perverting >: 
560  Protestants  in  one  Parish  alone. 

On  the  morning  of  his  martyrdom  he  cele- 
brated the  votive  Mass  of  the  Blessed  Trinity 
in  thanksgiving  for  the  great  favour  God  was 
pleased  to  grant  him — a  favour  he  had  besought 
for  thirty  years — having  first,  according  to  his 
custom,  recited  the  Litanies  of  Our  Lady  and 
the  Saints  for  the  conversion  of  England.  When 
he  was  admonished  that  his  time  was  come,  he 
knelt  down  and  offered  himself  without  reserve 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Divine  Majesty  and  in 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  21 

reparation  for  the  sins  of  his  nation.  He  welcomed 
death,  saying  :  '  Come,  my  sweetest  Jesus, 
that  I  may  now  be  inseparably  united  to  Thee 
in  time  and  in  eternity.  Welcome  ropes,  hurdles, 
gibbets,  knives  and  butchery  !  welcome  for  the 
love  of  Jesus  my  Saviour  !  ' 


FEBRUARY  3RD,  1578. 
BLESSED  JOHN  NELSON,  Priest,  S.J. 

THIS  martyr  was  born  at  Shelton,  near  York. 
He  was  arrested  on  suspicion  late  one  evening 
when  saying  Matins.  The  Oath  of  the  Queen's 
supremacy  was  offered  to  him,  but  he  refused 
to  take  it,  saying  that  the  Pope's  Holiness  was 
the  Head  of  the  Church  "  to  whom  that  supreme 
authority  on  earth  was  due,  as  being  Christ's 
Vicar,  and  the  lawful  successor  of  St.  Peter." 
When  sentence  was  pronounced  against  him, 
he  never  changed  countenance,  but  prepared 
himself  with  a  good  countenance  to  die.  By 
God's  special  providence,  he  received  '  the 
Sacred  Viaticum  the  day  before  he  was  arraigned. 
Arrived  at  Tyburn,  he  turned  to  the  people, 
saying  :  '  I  call  you  all  this  day  to  witness  that 
I  die  in  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
for  that  unity  do  now  most  willingly  suffer  my 
blood  to  be  shed ;  and  therefore  I  beseech  God, 


22     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

and  request  you  all  to  pray  for  the  same,  that  it 
would  please  God  of  His  great  mercy  to  make 
you,  and  all  others  that  are  not  such  already,  true 
Catholic  men.  ...  'He  then  besought  all  who 
were  of  the  like  Faith  to  pray  with  him  "  that 
Christ,  by  the  merits  of  His  bitter  Passion, 
would  receive  his  soul  into  everlasting  joy." 
He  was  cut  down  when  only  half  dead.  As 
his  heart  was  plucked  out  he  was  heard  to 
murmur :  '  I  forgive  the  Queen  and  all  that 
were  causers  of  my  death." 

FEBRUARY  7TH,  1578. 
BLESSED  THOMAS  SHERWOOD,  Layman. 

HE  was  born  in  London,  and  was  one  of  a  large 
family.  He  had  returned  from  Douai  in  order 
to  arrange  with  his  father  about  remaining  at 
the  seminary,  and  was  one  day  talking  in  Chan- 
cery Lane  when  the  cry  was  raised,  "  Stop  the 
traitor  !  "  It  was  the  unworthy  son  of  a  Catholic 
lady  with  whom  he  was  staying  who  thus  be- 
trayed him.  Having  replied  to  the  question  put 
to  him  that  he  believed  the  Holy  Father  to  be 
the  Head  of  the  Church,  the  young  seminarist 
was  sent  to  prison  on  a  charge  of  high  treason. 
In  the  vain  attempt  to  force  him  to  reveal  where 
and  by  whom  he  had  heard  Mass  said,  he  was 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  23 

taken  to  the  Tower  to  be  cruelly  racked.  The 
only  words  which  escaped  him  were  :  '  Lord 
Jesus,  I  am  not  worthy  that  I  should  suffer 
these  things  for  Thee,  much  less  am  I  worthy 
of  those  rewards  which  Thou  hast  promised  to 
give  to  such  as  confess  Thee."  He  was  then 
thrown  into  a  dungeon  under  the  banks  of  the 
Thames,  among  the  rats,  where  he  endured 
hunger  and  cold  for  three  winter  months. 

On  the  Eve  of  Candlemas,  Sherwood  was  tried 
and  found  guilty  of  denying  the  royal  supremacy, 
and  the  barbarous  sentence  was  passed.  He  is 
described  as  small,  and  he  looked  much  younger 
than  his  twenty-seven  years  ;  '  being  of  his 
nature  very  meek  and  gentle." 

FEBRUARY  IZTH,  1584. 

YEN.  JAMES  FENN,  Secular  Priest.       , 
YEN.  GEORGE  HAYDOCK,  Secular  Priest. 

YEN.     THOMAS     HAMERFORD,     Secular 
Priest. 

YEN.  JOHN  MUNDEN,  Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  JOHN  NUTTER,  Secular  Priest. 

ON  the  Feast  of  St.  Peter's  Chains,  these 
prisoners  of  Christ  were  accounted  worthy  to 
hear  the  death  sentence  passed  on  them  for 
upholding  the  primacy  of  Peter. 


24    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

JAMES  FENN  was  born  at  Montacute,  in 
Somersetshire.  He  made  his  studies  at  Oxford, 
at  New  College  and  Corpus  Christi  College. 
On  the  death  of  his  wife  he  became  a  Seminary 
Priest.  A  moving  scene  took  place  at  the  Tower 
Gate  after  he  was  bound  on  the  hurdle  ;  his 
little  daughter  Frances,  with  many  tears,  came 
to  take  her  last  leave  of  him  and  receive  his 
blessing,  which  he  gave  her  with  difficulty, 
striving  to  raise  his  manacled  hands. 

GEORGE  HAYDOCK,  the  son  of  the 
Squire  of  Cottamhall,  near  Preston,  Lancashire 
was  the  youngest  of  the  five  martyr  priests, 
being  only  twenty-four  years  old  when 
he  suffered.  In  answer  to  the  questions 
put  by  the  minister,  he  said  that  if  he  and 
the  Queen  were  alone  in  some  desert  place 
where  he  could  do  to  her  what  he  would  he 
would  not  so  much  as  prick  her  with  a  pin  : 
"  No,  not  to  gain  the  whole  world,  and,"  he 
added,  "  I  beg  and  beseech  all  Catholics  to  pray 
together  with  me  to  our  common  Lord  for  me 
and  for  our  Country's  weal." 

YEN.  THOMAS  HAMERFORD  and  YEN. 
JOHN  MUNDEN  welcomed  death  with  great 
fortitude.  Father  Munden  acknowledged  his 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  25 

sentence  by  joyfully  reciting  the  *   Te  Deum." 
They  were  both  natives  of  Dorset. 

YEN.  JOHN  NUTTER  was  born  in  Lancas- 
shire.  He  won  for  himself  the  name  "  John  of 
Plain  Dealing  '  from  his  fellow  prisoners  for 
his  outspokenness  in  rebuking  vice.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  timid  by  nature,  but  he  now  met 
a  most  cruel  death  with  no  less  courage  and 
constancy  than  his  companions. 


FEBRUARY  17111,  1603. 

VEN.    WILLIAM    RICHARDSON,    Secular 
Priest. 

HE  was  born  in  Yorkshire,  and  was  a  priest  of 
the  seminaries  of  Douai  and  Spain.  On  return- 
ing to  England,  he  found  a  refuge  in  the  Inns 
of  Court,  and  brought  many  into  the  Catholic 
Church,  especially  among  the  young  lawyers, 
numbers  of  whom  placed  themselves  under  his 
direction.  When,  after  a  few  years,  he  was 
arrested,  his  spiritual  sons  would  gladly  have 
risked  their  lives  in  planning  his  escape  by 
night.  This  he  utterly  refused  to  permit,  saying  : 
'  I  know  well  it  comes  from  your  great  love 
for  me.  .  .  But  what  could  you  possibly  wish 
for  me  that  could  be  more  honourable  or  more 

c 


26     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

glorious  .  .  .  than  to  die  .  .  .for  the  confession 
of  the  true  Faith  and  the  Christian  religion.  .  . 
Rather  strive  with  me  in  prayer  to  God  that  He 
may  give  me  prudence  and  wisdom  to  reply 
discreetly  to  the  judges,  and  strength  of  soul  to 
bear  whatever  sufferings  are  laid  upon  me." 
He  was  sentenced  to  the  most  barbarous  penal- 
ties decreed  against  priests,  and  the  following 
day  was  dragged  to  Tyburn,  escorted  by  many 
of  his  fervent  disciples,  who  ever  and  again 
pressed  to  the  side  of  the  hurdle  to  wipe  the 
slush  from  his  face,  and  at  the  last  they  could 
not  be  kept  back  from  crowding  to  kiss  his  hands 
and  obtain  his  blessing  till  he  mounted  the 
ladder  by  which  he  was  to  ascend  to  God. 

Five  weeks  later,  Elizabeth  was  called  to 
appear  before  the  Just  Judge,  after  a  reign  of 
more  than  forty-four  years. 

FEBRUARY  i8xH.  1594. 

YEN.   WILLIAM   HARRINGTON,    Secular 

Priest.  ....  • 

HE  was  born  in  Yorkshire.  Before  being  led 
forth  to  the  hurdle  on  the  morning  of  his 
triumph,  he  gave  his  blessing  to  some  poor 
Catholic  women  who  found  means  to  come  to 
him.  At  Tyburn  he  was  offered  his  life  if  he 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  27 

would  promise  to  go  once  to  the  church  by  law 
established.  He  said :  "  See,  then,  all  my 
treason  is  that  I  will  not  go  to  church  !  '  Top- 
cliffe  then  bade  him  tell  all  he  knew  of  the 
Catholics  in  the  west  country,  as  it  was  known 
that  he  had  friends  there  and  it  was  in  the  power 
of  the  Sheriff  to  show  mercy  and  save  him.  The 
Martyr  replied  he  had  nothing  to  disclose,  and 
Topcliffe's  mercy  was  worse  than  the  Turk's 
who,  having  the  body  in  subjection,  sought  not 
to  destroy  the  soul.  Yet  he  prayed  God  to  for- 
give him  though  he  was  a  tyrant  and  a  blood- 
sucker. "  No  doubt  you  shall  have  blood 
enough,"  he  added,  *  so  long  as  you  have 
hands  and  a  halter  to  hang  us,  you  shall  not  want 
priests  ;  we  were  three  hundred  in  England  ; 
you  have  put  to  death  one  hundred  ;  other  two 
hundred  are  left.  When  they  are  gone,  two 
hundred  more  are  ready  to  come  in  their  place. 
For  my  part,  I  hope  my  death  will  do  more 
good  than  ever  my  life  would  have  dene." 

FEBRUARY  21  ST,  1595. 
VEN.  ROBERT  SOUTHWELL,  Priest,  S.J. 

HE  was  born  at  St.  Faith's,  in  Norfolk,  and  was 
received  into  the  Society  of  Jesus  when  only  16 
years  old,  and  early  showed  signs  of  great  literary 


28     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

gifts.  He  laboured  among  his  persecuted  fellow- 
countrymen  for  eight  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  he  was  betrayed  and  apprehended  a  few 
miles  from  London.  Being  cast  into  the  Tower, 
he  was  left  for  the  first  month  in  a  most  filthy 
dungeon,  and  for  three  years  he  was  kept  in 
prison  and  was  ten  times  cruelly  racked.  When 
he  learnt  that  he  was  to  give  the  supreme  proof 
of  his  love,  his  heart  overflowed  with  joy. 

Great  care  was  taken  to  keep  the  day  of  his 
martyrdom  secret,  and  a  famous  highwayman 
was  purposely  sentenced  to  be  executed  at 
another  place  at  the  same  hour.  These  pre- 
cautions were,  however,  powerless  to  prevent 
an  immense  crowd  assembling  at  Tyburn  to 
witness  the  last  glorious  conflict  of  the  holy 
Jesuit,  poet  and  Martyr.  He  made  the  sign  of 
the  cross  as  well  as  he  was  able  with  his  manacled 
hands,  and  then  began  to  speak  to  the  people  in 
the  words  of  the  Apostle  :  "  Whether  we  live, 
we  live  to  the  Lord,  or  whether  we  die,  we  die 
to  the  Lord  ;  therefore,  whether  we  live  or 
whether  we  die,  we  belong  to  the  Lord."  Then 
he  prayed  for  the  Queen  and  for  his  poor  country, 
imploring  the  Divine  Bounty  to  favour  it  with 
His  light  and  the  knowledge  of  His  truth.  He 
died  at  the  same  age  as  Our  Saviour. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  29 

FEBRUARY  a6TH,  1607. 

YEN.  ROBERT  DRURY,  Secular  Priest. 
BORN  in  Buckinghamshire,  Robert  Drury  was 
educated  partly  at  Rheims  and  partly  at  Vail  ad  - 
olid,  where  he  received  ordination,  returning  to 
England  in  1593.  He  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
persecutors  about  the  time  that  a  new  Oath  of 
Allegiance  was  imposed  upon  Catholics  in  the 
reign  of  James  I.  This  oath  is  said  to  have  been 
contrived  by  Sir  Christopher  Perkins,  a  fallen 
Jesuit,  and  was  worded  in  such  a  manner  that 
Catholics  could  be  divided  in  their  opinion  as 
to  its  lawfulness.  It  was  prohibited  by  Pope 
Paul  V,  and  that  was  enough  for  Father  Drury 
as  for  all  true  Catholics.  When  condemned  to 
die  for  remaining  in  the  realm  contrary  to  the 
statute,  he  might  have  saved  his  life  by  taking 
the  oath,  but  chose  to  sacrifice  his  life  rather 
than  his  conscience. 

He  suffered  with  great  constancy  at  the  age  of 
thirty-nine. 


30    THE  ONE  PIUNDRED  AND  FIVE 
FEBRUARY  27111,  1601. 

VEN.  MARK  BARKWORTH,  Priest,  O.S.B. 
YEN.  ROGER  FILCOCK,  Priest,  S.J. 
VEN.  ANNE  LINE,  Widow. 

IT  was  the  Benedictine  Father  who  sang  on  his 
way  to  Tyburn  in  the  bitter  cold  and  falling  snow. 
Again,  as  he  stood  in  the  cart  with  his  companion 
priest,  the  ropes  about  their  necks,  "  Haec  dies 
quam  fecit  Dominus  exultemus,"  he  sang,  and 
the  Jesuit  took  up  the  words  of  the  Easter 
anthem,  "  Etlaetemurin  ea."  Father  Barkworth 
was  born  in  Lincolnshire,  and  became  a  convert 
of  the  Catholic  Faith  at  the  age  of  twenty-two. 
Having  gone  to  Flanders  and  thence  to  Spain, 
he  returned  to  England  to  work  on  the  mission. 
In  order  to  remind  the  spectators  of  the  debt 
England  owed  to  the  children  of  St.  Benedict, 
he  desired  to  be  martyred  in  the  monastic  habit. 
A  minister  cried  out :  "  Repent  of  your  sins 
and  remember  that  Christ  has  given  His  life 
for  you."  The  monk  devoutly  kissed  the  rope, 
"  And  so  am  I  now  giving  my  life  for  Him,  and 
would  I  had  a  thousand  lives  to  lay  down  for 
Him." 

VEN.  ROGER  FILCOCK,  who  witnessed  the 
death  of  his  two  companions  before  he  suffered 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  31 

himself,  was  born  at  Sandwich,  in  Kent.  The  two 
martyrs  were  lifelong  friends,  and  Father  Bark- 
worth  had  a  prophetic  presentiment  when  he 
wrote  shortly  before  the  event :  "  My  mind 
tells  me  that  we  shall  die  together,  who  have 
so  long  lived  together." 

ANNE  LINE,  weak  of  body  but  strong  of 
soul,  was  the  first  of  the  three  to  be  martyred. 
Her  desire  of  martyrdom  had  been  increased  by 
a  vision  she  had  had  of  Our  Lord  in  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  bearing  His  Cross  and  beckoning  her 
to  follow  Him.  On  Candlemas  Day,  1601,  the 
pursuivants,  suspecting  she  harboured  a  priest, 
broke  in  while  Father  Page  was  saying  Mass. 
He  had  time  to  escape,  but  the  brave  widow  was 
hurried  off  to  prison  and  soon  afterwards  con- 
demned. At  Tyburn  she  declared  with  a  loud 
voice  :  "  I  am  sentenced  to  death  for  harbouring 
a  Catholic  Priest,  and  so  far  I  am  from  repent- 
ing for  having  so  done,  that  I  wish  with  all  my 
soul  that  where  I  have  entertained  one  I  could 
have  entertained  a  thousand." 


32     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

MARCH  yin,  1544. 
BLESSED  JOHN  LARKE,  Secular  Priest. 

BLESSED   JERMYN    GARDINER,    Secular 
Priest. 

YEN.  JOHN  IRELAND,  Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  THOMAS  ASHBY,  Layman. 

BLESSED  J.  LARKE  had  been  the  rector  of 
St.  Ethelburga's,  Bishopsgate,  for  twenty-six 
years,  when  Blessed  Thomas  More  made  him 
parish  priest  of  the  old  riverside  Church  at 
Chelsea.  It  was  here  the  Lord  Chancellor  came 
with  his  household  on  Sundays  and  holidays, 
accounting  it  a  high  privilege  to  serve  Mass,  and 
where  he  came  finally  to  be  shriven  and  receive 
Holy  Communion  the  morning  of  the  day  he 
was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Council. 

Blessed  John  Larke  carried  on  his  work  for 
souls  another  ten  years  after  that.  Then,  in  the 
thirty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  he 
was  himself  put  to  the  final  test,  and  "  following 
the  example  of  his  own  sheep,  afterwards  suffered 
a  most  famous  martyrdom  for  the  same  cause 
of  the  supremacy."  Two  other  secular  priests, 
BLESSED  J.  GARDINER— kinsman  and 
secretary  of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester — and 
YEN.  J.  IRELAND,  with  YEN.  T.  ASHBY, 
Layman,  shared  his  condemnation  and  martyr- 
dom. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  33 

APRIL  IITH,  1608. 
YEN.  GEORGE  GERVASE,  Priest,  O.S.B. 

HE  was  born  at  Bosham,  in  Sussex,  his  mother 
belonging  to  the  Shelley  family  of  that  county. 
George  was  left  an  orphan  when  only  twelve 
years  old,  and  with  two  of  his  brothers,  was  kid- 
napped by  pirates  and  carried  off  to  the  Indies. 
After  another  period  of  twelve  years,  during 
which  time  he  quite  lost  the  religion  taught  him 
as  a  child,  he  found  means  to  return  to  England, 
and  afterwards  went  over  to  Flanders,  where 
he  succeeded  in  tracing  his  eldest  brother. 
George  Gervase  was  there  reconciled  to  the 
Catholic  Faith,  and  soon  after  entered  the 
English  seminary  at  Douai.  In  due  time  he  was 
ordained  and  sent  on  the  English  Mission.  In 
the  space  of  two  years  he  won  many  souls  to 
God,  and  was  then  apprehended  and  sent  from 
prison  to  banishment.  His  brother  endeavoured 
to  persuade  him  to  remain  in  safety  in  Flanders, 
but  the  promise  by  which  he  was  bound,  as  well 
as  the  great  love  he  bore  his  country,  brought 
him  back  to  die  for  it.  He  was  thirty-six  years  of 
age  when  he  yielded  up  his  life  at  Tyburn,  and 
had  been  but  lately  enrolled  in  the  Order  of  St. 
Benedict. 


34    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

APRIL  lyTH,  1643. 

VEN.  HENRY  (PAUL  OF  ST.  MAGDALEN) 
HEATH,  Priest,  O.F.M. 

HE  was  born  at  Peterborough,  of  Protestant 
parents,  and  studied  at  Oxford.  His  love  for 
books,  especially  for  those  written  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  proved  the  means  by 
which  he  found  the  true  Faith.  For  a  while  he 
remained  at  Douai  seminary  before  entering 
the  Convent  of  the  Franciscans  in  that  town, 
being  attracted  by  their  fervour  and  poverty. 
Here  for  nineteen  years  he  led  a  life  of  great 
penance,  obedience  and  meekness,  and  it  was 
here  that  his  old  father,  for  whose  conversion  he 
had  so  much  prayed,  came  to  seek  admission  to 
the  fold  of  Christ  and  became  a  lay  brother  in  this 
convent  of  which  his  son  was  twice  guardian. 

Father  Heath  had  long  been  consumed  by  an 
ardent  desire  for  martyrdom,  and  craved  per- 
mission to  return  to  his  country.  This  he  at 
length  obtained  through  the  intercession  of  Our 
Lady  of  Montagu,  near  Lou  vain.  Having  begged 
his  way  to  London,  he  was  immediately  arrested 
and  his  sentence  promptly  pronounced.  From 
his  dungeon  he  wrote  to  his  Superior  :  "  What 
other  thing  can  I  desire  than  to  suffer  with 
Christ,  to  be  reproached  with  Christ,  to  die  a 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  35 

thousand  deaths  that  I  may  live  for  ever  with 
Christ.  ...  '  On  the  way  to  Tyburn,  having 
said  his  "  Nunc  Dimittis,"  he  ever  invoked  the 
Name  of  Jesus.  He  died  with  intense  joy  and 
sweetness.  '  Jesus,  convert  England,  Jesus  have 
mercy  on  this  country  ;  oh,  England,  be  con- 
verted to  the  Lord  thy  God  !  "  were  the  words 
with  which  he  breathed  out  his  soul. 

APRIL  IQTH,  1602. 

VEN.  JAMES  DUCKETT,  Layman. 

His  boyhood  was  spent  among  the  Westmore- 
land hills,  where  he  was  brought  up  in  the  new 
religion.  After  his  school-days  he  was  bound 
apprentice  to  a  merchant  in  London,  and  there 
became  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Catholicism, 
which  he  embraced  after  many  trials  and  diffi- 
culties. He  chose  the  trade  of  a  bookseller,  and 
supplied  books  to  Catholics,  and  this  was  the 
cause  of  his  spending  much  of  his  married  life 
in  prison.  He  was  betrayed  by  a  bookbinder, 
who  being  condemned  to  death  thus  sought 
to  save  his  own  life,  but  lost  it,  together  with  his 
honour.  The  Martyr  met  him  again  in  the  same 
cart  that  was  to  take  them  to  Tyburn.  As  they 
stood  beneath  the  gibbet,  with  ropes  round  their 
necks,  James  Duckett  said  :  "  Peter,  the  cause 


36     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

of  my  coming  hither  God  and  thyself  knowest, 
for  which  I  from  my  heart  forgive  thee."  Then 
he  bent  and  kissed  him,  saying  :  Thy  life  and 
mine  are  not  long  ;  wilt  thou  promise  me  one 
thing  ?  If  thou  wilt,  speak.  Wilt  thou  die  as  I 
die,  a  Catholic  ?  " 

'  I  will  die  as  a  Christian  should  die,"  was 
the  answer. 

APRIL  20TH,  1586. 

VEN.  RICHARD  SERGEANT,  Secular  Priest. 

YEN.   WILLIAM   THOMPSON,   Secular 
Priest. 

VEN.  RICHARD  SERGEANT  was  born  in 
Gloucestershire,  and  his  companion  in  martyr- 
dom at  Blackburn,  in  Lancashire.  After  a  fruitful 
apostolate,  both  gladly  laid  down  their  lives  for 
Christ.  They  were  condemned  for  having  been 
made  priests  beyond  the  seas. 

APRIL  20TH,  1602. 

VEN.  FRANCIS  PAGE,  Priest,  SJ. 

VEN.  THOMAS  TICHBURN,  Secular  Priest. 

VEN.  ROBERT  WATKINSON,  Secular  Priest. 

VEN.  FRANCIS  PAGE  was  a  lawyer's  clerk 
at  the  time  of  his  conversion,  which  he  owed  to 
the  lady  to  whom  he  was  betrothed.  Thereupon 
giving  up  his  heart  wholly  to  God,  he  entered 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  37 

the  seminary  of  the  martyrs.  He  was  saying  Mass 
in  the  house  of  Anne  Line  on  that  Candlemas 
Day  on  which  she  was  captured.  A  year  later 
he  was  sold  to  his  enemies  by  a  woman  who  had 
once  professed  herself  to  be  a  Catholic,  but  who 
subsequently  turned  to  the  base  business  of  be- 
traying priests  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies. 

FATHER  TICHBURN  was  born  at  Hartley, 
in  Hampshire.  He  was  the  kinsman  of  Ven. 
Nicholas  Tichburn,  who  had  suffered  in  his 
stead  in  the  August  of  the  previous  year.  He 
had  now  the  happiness  of  witnessing  to  Christ 
with  the  life  which  was  already  burning  itself 
out  in  a  hectic  fever. 

It  was  FATHER  WATKINSON  who,  on 
returning  to  England  in  weak  health,  met  on 
the  following  day  a  venerable  stranger  who, 
before  suddenly  disappearing,  greeted  him  with 
the  words,  *  Jesus  bless  you,  Sir,  you  seem 
to  be  sick  and  troubled  with  many  infirmities  ; 
but  be  of  good  cheer,  for  within  these  four  days, 
you  shall  be  cured  of  all."  And  so  it  befell. 


38    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

APRIL  26TH,  1642. 
YEN.  EDWARD  MORGAN,  Secular  Priest. 

BORN  in  Flintshire,  North  Wales,  he  was  edu- 
cated at  the  English  College  of  Douai,  and  was 
ordained  priest  at  Salamanca. 

The  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life  were  passed 
in  the  Fleet  prison,  where  he  suffered  the  want 
of  all  things  except  courage  and  confidence  in 
God. 

"  For  though,"  said  he,  when  death  ap- 
proached, "  by  nature  I  am  timorous,  now  have 
I  no  manner  of  apprehension  of  halters,  knives 
or  fires,  or  whatever  else  I  may  suffer  for  a  good 
cause,  and  gladly  would  I  have  many  lives  if  I 
might  lay  them  all  down  in  the  service  of  so  good 
a  Master." 

He  said  to  those  who  came  to  receive  his  last 
blessing — and  his  cloak  was  nearly  all  snipped 
away  for  relics — "  Pray  that  I  may  die  as  a 
Catholic  priest,  with  a  constant  humility  and  a 
humble  constancy,  that  no  fear  may  terrify  me, 
neither  any  presumption  puff  me  up.  .  .  " 

Father  Morgan  met  death  with  such  cheer- 
fulness that  a  minister  reproved  him.  The 
Martyr  replied  :  "  Why  should  anyone  be 
offended  at  my  going  to  Heaven  cheerfully  ?  for 
God  loves  a  cheerful  giver." 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  39 

MAY  4TH,  1535. 

BLESSED  JOHN  HOUGHTON,  Carthusian 
Prior. 

BLESSED   AUGUSTINE  WEBSTER,   Car- 
thusian Prior. 

BLESSED  ROBERT  LAWRENCE,  Carthus- 
ian Prior. 

BLESSED   RICHARD   REYNOLDS,  Priest, 
Bridgittine. 

BLESSED  JOHN  HAILE,  Secular  Priest. 

BLESSED  JOHN  HOUGHTON  was  born  in 
Essex.  He  was  the  Prior  and  proto-martyr  of  the 
London  Charterhouse,  and  was  also  the  proto- 
martyr  of  the  one  hundred  and  five  glorious 
martyrs  of  Tyburn.  When,  in  1535,  the  Act  of 
the  Royal  Supremacy  was  published,  he  went, 
together  with  the  Carthusian  Pricrs  of  Beauvale 
and  Axholme,  to  plead  that  the  monks  might 
be  held  exempt  from  the  Oath,  or  that  it  might 
be  mitigated  for  them,  though  with  one  voice 
they  had  chosen  to  die  rather  than  swerve  in 
their  allegiance  to  the  Holy  See.  Thomas 
Cromwell's  answer  was  to  send  the  three  Priors 
to  the  Tower.  They  were  tried  and  sentenced 
to  death.  Clad  in  their  white  habits,  and  stretched 
on  hurdles,  they  came  to  Tyburn  as  gladly  as  to 
a  marriage  feast.  Blessed  John  Houghton  was 
the  first  to  win  his  crown.  He  was  cut  down 


40     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

while  still  conscious,  and  bore  the  butchery  in- 
flicted on  him  with  invincible  meekness. "  Good 
Jesu  !  what  will  Ye  do  with  my  heart  ?  "  he  cried 
as  it  was  torn  from  his  breast. 

BLESSED  RICHARD  REYNOLDS  was 
perhaps  the  most  learned  monk  of  his  time  in 
England,  and  certainly  one  of  the  holiest.  He 
was  known  to  all  as  the  "  Angel  of  Sion,"  a  title 
he  won  by  his  saintly  life  in  the  Bridgittine 
Monastery  of  Isle  worth.  It  was  felt  that  the 
submission  of  such  a  man  to  the  King's  new 
statutes  would  act  powerfully  upon  the  whole 
country,  and  he  was  put  to  the  test  accordingly. 
But  this  project  entirely  failed,  his  allegiance 
to  the  Holy  See  remained  unshaken,  and  the 
terrible  sufferings  of  dungeon  and  gibbet  only 
served  to  add  to  the  high  opinion  men  had  of  him. 

BLESSED  JOHN  HAILE  was  far  advanced 
in  years  when  he  was  brought  to  trial  on  the 
charge  of  maliciously  slandering  the  King. 
Unlike  some  of  the  Martyrs,  he  felt  the  full 
horror  and  dread  of  death,  and  this  circum- 
stance, aggravated  by  age  and  sickness,  made 
his  end  all  the  more  admirable,  for  he  never 
swerved,  but  offered  the  sacrifice  of  his  life  with 
as  much  love  and  fortitude  as  the  most  light- 
hearted  among  them. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  41 

MAY  QTH,  1679. 

VEN.  THOMAS  PICKERING,  Lay-Brother, 
O.S.B. 

HE  was  professed  in  the  English  monastery  of 
Douai,  and  on  returning  to  his  own  country  was 
arraigned  as  a  conspirator  in  the  Gates  Plot.  It 
was  sworn  against  the  Benedictine  Brother  by 
perjured  witnesses  that  being  "  a  religious  man  " 
he  was  to  have  30,000  Masses  at  a  shilling 
a  Mass  for  killing  the  King  (an  absurd  charge  as 
he  was  not  a  priest).  He  was  further  accused  of 
walking  in  St.  James's  Park  with  John  Grove — 
see  January  24th — -armed  with  pistols  in  view  of 
this  attempt.  A  most  improbable  story  was  con- 
cocted as  to  how  on  three  separate  occasions 
he  had  been  foiled  in  his  purpose.  Thomas 
Pickering  truly  declared  he  had  never  fired  a 
pistol  in  his  life.  He  was  indeed  a  man  incapable 
of  harming  anyone,  and  the  most  unlikely  to  plan 
such  a  desperate  deed.  He  was,  however,  found 
guilty  but  reprieved  for  five  months  longer, 
the  King  being  very  unwilling  to  consent  to  the 
death  of  one  whose  father  had  given  his  life 
in  the  late  civil  wars  for  the  royal  cause.  But 
the  Martyr,  knowing  full  well  that  his  religion 
was  his  only  treason,  was  most  happy  to  die  for 
it.  At  Tyburn,  in  answer  to  those  who  bade  him 

D 


42     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

confess  his  guilt,  ere  he  died,  he  pulled  off  his 
cap,  showing  a  smiling  countenance  :  "  Is  this," 
said  he,  "  the  countenance  of  a  man  who  dies 
under  so  gross  a  guilt  ?  " 


MAY  IQTH,  1651. 
YEN.  PETER  WRIGHT,  Priest,  SJ. 

HE  was  the  son  of  poor  parents,  and  was  born  at 
Slipton,  in  Northamptonshire.  On  the  death  of 
his  father,  he  entered  the  service  of  a  country 
lawyer.  After  making  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  he 
was  received  into  the  novitiate  of  the  Jesuits  in 
Ghent.  During  the  Civil  Wars  he  was  sent  on 
a  Mission  to  the  English  soldiers,  and  was 
afterwards  chaplain  to  the  Winchester  family, 
with  whom  he  lived  until  he  was  captured  by 
priest-catchers  on  Candlemas  Day,  1651. 

On  the  morning  of  his  martyrdom,  hearing  a 
knock  at  the  iron  grill,  he  took  it  as  a  summons 
from  Heaven,  and  cried  out :  "  I  come,  sweet 
Jesus,  I  come."  It  was  said  by  an  eyewitness  that 
*  the  Blessed  Father  was  drawn  like  a  triumphal 
victor  to  Tyburn."  Two  hundred  coaches  and 
five  hundred  horsemen  thronged  the  way. 
Many  sought  his  last  blessing  from  their  win- 
dows, balconies  and  carriages,  or  pressing 
forward  to  the  hurdle,  kissed  his  hands  and  cut 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  43 

pieces  from  his  garments  for  relics.  Tyburn 
fields  presented  one  waving  mass,  the  concourse 
being  reckoned  to  number  20,000. 

Even  in  his  death-agony,  the  Martyr's  coun- 
tenance was  seen  to  be  smiling  and  beautiful. 
'  And  as  he  drew  his  last  breath,  lo  !  a  little 
bird  on  a  sudden  flew  through  the  forest  of 
javelins,  between  the  gallows  and  the  Martyr's 
head,  and  poising  its  wings  .  .  seemed  .  .  . 
to  perch  there  like  a  sacerdotal  crown.  .  . 

MAY  28TH,  1582. 

BLESSED  THOMAS  FORDE,  Secular  Priest. 

BLESSED     ROBERT    JOHNSON,     Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED  JOHN  SHERT,  Secular  Priest. 

BLESSED  THOMAS  FORDE,  the  first  of 
these  three  Martyrs  to  enter  the  sharp,  bitter 
conflict,  was  born  in  Devonshire  and  brought 
up  at  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  Not  liking  the 
Protestant  religion,  he  quitted  all  temporal 
prospects  in  order  to  become  a  seminary  priest. 
He  was  apprehended  with  Father  Campion 
and  with  him  cast  into  the  Tower.  Six  months 
after  receiving  his  death  sentence,  together 
with  his  two  companion  Martyrs,  he  was  drawn 
to  Tyburn  between  6  and  7  o'clock  on  that  May 


44     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

morning.  He  died  praying,  "  Jesu,  Jesuy  Jesu, 
esto  mihi  Jesus  I J 

BLESSED  ROBERT  JOHNSON  was  born  in 
Shropshire.  In  his  youth  he  was  a  servant  in  a 
gentleman's  family.  He  later  received  Holy 
Orders  at  Douai.  He  was  also  one  of  those  con- 
demned with  Father  Campion,  and  at  three 
different  times  was  most  cruelly  racked. 

BLESSED  JOHN  SHERT  was  born  in  Ches- 
hire.  He  was  a  convert,  and  at  one  time  a  noted 
London  schoolmaster.  Just  before  his  own  exe- 
cution, seeing  Blessed  Thomas  Forde  hanged 
before  him,  he  exclaimed  :  "  O  happy  Thomas, 
happy  art  thou  that  thou  hast  run  that  happy 
race  !  O  benedicta  anima  !  '  When  forced  to 
look  on  the  last  horrors  inflicted  on  the  poor 
mangled  body,  he  repeated  these  words  and  was 
blamed  for  praying  to  one  already  dead,  and 
again  for  asking  the  help  of  God's  Mother  and 
His  Saints.  This  he  declared  to  be  a  doctrine 
sound  and  true  which  he  would  now  sign  with 
his  blood.  Then,  thanking  God  for  bringing  his 
poor  servant  to  so  glorious  and  happy  a  death, 
the  last  lof  these  three  Martyrs  won  his  palm. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  45 

MAY  30TH,  1582. 

BLESSED   WILLIAM    FILBIE,    Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED   LAWRENCE   RICHARDSON, 

Secular  Priest . 

BLESSED    THOMAS     COTTAM,    Secular 
Priest. 

BLESSED  LUKE  KIRBY,  Secular  Priest. 

The  first  of  these  four  Martyrs  was  born  in 
Oxford  and  made  a  priest  at  Rheims.  On  re- 
turning to  England  he  was  apprehended  with 
Father  Campion  at  Lyford  Grange.  It  was  more 
than  six  months  before  his  sentence  was  carried 
out.  He  was  drawn  to  Tyburn  with  his  three 
companions  and,  being  the  youngest,  (he  was 
about  twenty-seven  years  old),  was  first  taken 
from  the  hurdle.  One  of  the  Sheriff's  men, 
standing  in  the  cart  with  him,  said  :  "  What 
hast  thou  there  in  thy  handkerchief  ?  "  He  found 
it  to  be  a  little  cross  of  wood,  which  he  held  up 
to  the  crowd,  crying  :  "  O  what  a  villainous 
traitor  is  this  that  hath  a  cross  !  ' 

BLESSED  LAWRENCE  RICHARDSON 
laboured  with  great  fruit  in  Lancashire,  his 
native  country.  Repeatedly  pressed  by  Top- 
cliffe  and  the  Protestant  ministers  present  at 
his  execution  to  renounce  the  Pope  in  order  to 


46     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

obtain  the  Queen's  pardon,  he  bore  all  their 
endeavours  with  cheerfulness  and  remained 
unmoved. 

BLESSED  THOMAS  COTTAM,  when 
told  he  was  to  die  on  the  morrow,  unable  to 
contain  his  joy,  went  to  the  window,  crying  : 

Give  God  thanks  with  me,  for  to-morrow  is 
my  day  !  "  At  Tyburn,  being  placed  so  as  to  face 
his  companions,  he  prayed  :  "  Lord  Jesus,  have 
mercy  upon  them  .  .  .  Lord,  give  me  con- 
stancy to  the  end.  O  Domine,  tu  plura  pro  me 
passus  es  !  "  He  and  BLESSED  LUKE  KIRBY 
both  suffered  the  torture  known  as  the  "  Scav- 
enger's Daughter."  This  was  probably  the  name 
given  to  the  hoop  of  iron  into  which  those  con- 
demned were  thrust,  their  bodies  being  fright- 
fully crushed  in  it  by  the  tightening  of  a  large 
screw . 


MAY  SOTH,  1612. 

VEN.  WILLIAM  MAURUS  SCOT,    Priest, 
O.S.B. 

VEN.  RICHARD  NEWPORT,  Secular  Priest. 

ON  Whitsun  Eve  they  laid  down  their  lives  "  for 
God's  honour  and  the  testimony  of  the  truth." 
Both  Martyrs  had  been  banished  several  times, 
and  had  returned  to  England  each  time  at  the 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  47 

peril  of  their  lives.  YEN.  WILLIAM  MAURUS 
SCOT  joined  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict  in 
Spain,  and  was  one  of  the  first  English  monks 
of  the  Congregation  of  Valladolid.  He  desired  to 
go  to  his  martyrdom  in  the  habit  of  his  Order, 
but  this  consolation  was  denied  him.  His  com- 
panion, YEN.  RICHARD  NEWPORT,  had 
been  ordained  at  Rome  and  was  a  native  of 
Northamptonshire.  His  labours  in  the  mission 
field  bore  much  fruit,  and  therefore  his  speedy 
arrest  and  condemnation  seemed  all  the  more 
desirable  to  the  enemies  of  the  Church.  The 
bodies  of  these  two  Confessors  of  the  Faith 
were  rescued  and  conveyed  at  night  to  the 
house  of  Dona  Luisa  de  Carvajal,  who  had 
already  paid  the  last  honours  to  the  relics  of 
other  Martyrs.  The  protection  of  the  Spanish 
Embassy  enabled  this  brave  woman  to  spend 
herself  in  ministering  to  the  needs,  both  spiritual 
and  corporal,  of  Catholics  in  England,  the 
country  of  her  adoption,  which  she  loved  with 
a  devotion  inspired  and  maintained  by  God 
Himself. 


48     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

JUNE  IST,  1571. 
BLESSED  JOHN  STOREY,  Layman. 

HE  belonged  to  a  Northumberland  family,  and 
was  connected  with  that  of  the  Selbys.  He  was 
a  distinguished  lawyer,  and  had  held  important 
Government  positions,  but  his  fidelity  to  the 
True  Faith  exposed  him  to  considerable  danger, 
and  for  the  sake  of  peace  of  conscience  he  settled 
in  Flanders.  He  soon  regretted  that  for  want  of 
greater  courage  he  had  deliberately  deprived 
himself  of  martyrdom,  and  his  friends  opposing 
his  desire  to  return  to  England,  he  gave  himself 
up  to  a  life  of  prayer  and  penance  until  poverty 
and  the  increasing  number  of  his  exiled  family 
compelled  him  to  enter  the  service  of  the  Duke 
of  Alva.  It  was  on  the  pretext  of  aiding  him  in 
his  office,  which  was  that  of  preventing  the 
export  of  heretical  books. to  England,  that  he 
was  lured  on  board  a  trader  at  Antwerp.  As  soon 
as  he  was  below,  the  hatches  were  closed  and  all 
sails  set  for  Yarmouth.  From  thence  he  was 
carried  to  London  and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower, 
where  he  had  been  confined  once  before.  He 
was  now  very  old  and  infirm.  He  was  tried 
on  a  charge  of  treason  and  for  comforting  traitors , 
and  without  proof  was  found  guilty.  At  Tyburn, 
with  the  rope  round  his  neck,  he  made  a  long 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  49 

speech,  and  pleaded  on  behalf  of  his  wife  "  who 
hath  four  young  children,  and  God  hath  now 
taken  me  away  that  was  her  staff  and  stay.  .  .  . 
I  have  good  hopes  that  you  will  be  good  to  her, 
for  she  is  the  faithfulest  wife,  the  lovingest,  the 
constantest,  that  ever  man  had,  and  twice  we 
have  lost  all  that  ever  we  had,  and  now  she  hath 
lost  me,  to  her  great  grief  I  know." 

He  was  subjected  to  more  than  usual  cruelty. 
The  fact  that  no  mention  is  found  of  the  use  of 
a  triangular  gallows  before  the  year  1571  seems 
to  confirm  the  opinion  that  it  was  erected  for 
the  purpose  of  drawing  special  attention  to  Dr. 
Storey's  execution. 

JUNE  I3TH,  1573. 

BLESSED  THOMAS  WOODHOUSE,  Priest, 
SJ. 

HE  was  a  parish  priest  in  Lincolnshire  during 
the  reign  of  Queen  Mary.  After  her  death,  when 
the  persecution  against  Catholics  recommenced, 
he  was  arrested  while  saying  Mass.  He  had 
many  privileges  in  prison,  being  allowed  to 
celebrate  the  Holy  Sacrifice  daily  in  his  cell.  It 
was  during  his  imprisonment  that  he  sought 
admission  into  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

As  his  sufferings  increased,  so  did  his  con- 
tentment, and  whenever  anyone  brought  him 


50    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

news  that  he  was  to  be  racked  or  have  more 
iron  chains  laid  on  him,  he  rewarded  the  bearer 
of  the  tidings  to  the  best  of  his  power.  When 
Blessed  J.  Storey  was  about  to  be  executed, 
Father  Woodhouse  offered  his  life  in  his  stead. 

After  an  imprisonment  of  eleven  years,  he 
received  sentence  of  death.  On  the  way  back  to 
Newgate  from  the  Guildhall,  when  one  struck 
him  rudely  on  the  face,  he  said  : 

"  Would  to  God  I  might  for  thee  suffer  ten 
times  as  much  that  thou  mightest  go  free  for 
the  blow  thou  hast  given  me.  I  forgive  thee  and 
pray  God  to  forgive  thee,  even  as  I  would  be 
forgiven." 

At  Tyburn,  when  the  Sheriff  told  him  there 
was  yet  time  to  repent,  and  ordered  him  to  ask 
pardon  of  God.  the  Queen,  and  the  country,  he 
answered  : 

"  Nay,  I,  on  the  part  of  God,  demand  of  you 
and  the  Queen  that  you  ask  pardon  of  God,  and 
of  Mother  Church,  because,  contrary  to  the 
truth,  you  have  resisted  Christ  the  Lord,  and 
the  Pope,  His  Vicar  on  earth." 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  51 

JUNE  iQTH,  1535. 


BLESSED  WILLIAM  EXMEW,  Carthusian 
Priest. 

BLESSED  HUMPHREY     MIDDLEMORE, 
Carthusian  Priest. 

BLESSED      SEBASTIEN      NEWDIGATE, 
Carthusian  Priest. 

THESE  three  young  Carthusian  Monks  were  of 
noble  birth,  and  of  great  piety  and  learning.  The 
first  was  Vicar  of  the  London  Charterhouse, 
BLESSED  HUMPHREY  MIDDLEMOREwas 
Procurator  ;  he  belonged  to  an  ancient  Warwick- 
shire family.  BLESSED  SEBASTIEN  NEW- 
DIGATE was  the  son  of  the  Lord  of  Harefield 
Manor,  Middlesex.  He  was  reared  at  the  Court 
of  the  King,  and  later,  when  confined  in  the 
Marshalsea  and  the  Tower,  Henry  VIII  visited 
him  in  the  hope  of  winning  him  over. 

Within  a  few  weeks  after  the  martyrdom  of 
their  Prior,  Blessed  John  Houghton,  they  were 
all  three  seized  for  refusing  to  take  the  Oath  of 
the  Royal  Supremacy.  They  were  cast  into  a 
dark  and  filthy  dungeon  in  the  Marshalsea  Prison, 
and  for  a  fortnight  were  bound  in  an  upright 
position  to  posts  or  columns  by  iron  chains 
fastened  round  their  necks  and  legs.  It  being 
supposed  they  would  now  submit  to  the  King's 
will,  they  were  taken  separately  to  be  examined 


52    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

before  the  Council,  and  the  Oath  was  again 
proffered  to  them.  With  unswerving  courage 
each  one  refused  to  act  in  any  way  contrary  to 
the  laws  and  traditions  of  Holy  Church.  They 
were  thereupon  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to 
be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered  as  traitors. 
They  went  forth  from  the  Council  with  glad 
hearts  and  faces,  rejoicing  to  be  accounted  worthy 
to  suffer  for  the  Name  of  Jesus.  Their  desire  to 
receive  Holy  Communion  before  they  died  was 
denied  them. 

JUNE  20TH,  1679. 

VEN.  THOMAS  WHITEBREAD,  Provincial 
S.J. 

VEN.  JOHN  FENWICK,  Priest,  S.J. 
YEN.  WILLIAM  HARCOURT,  Priest,  S.J. 
VEN.  JOHN  GAVAN,  Priest,  S.J. 
VEN.  ANTONY  TURNER,  Priest,  S.J. 

SOON  after  VEN.  THOMAS  WHITEBREAD 
had  been  elected  Provincial  of  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  in  England,  he  made  a  visitation  to  his 
brethren  at  Liege,  and  preached  to  them  at  the 
renovation  of  their  Vows  on  St.  James'  Day  on 
the  text  '  Potestis  bibere  calicem  quern  ego 
bibiturus  sum  ?  Dicunt  ei  possumus."  It  was  as 
if  he  had  already  foreseen  the  storm  of  perse- 
cution that  broke  out  two  months  later  at  the 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  53 

instigation  of  Gates  and  his  associates.  Father 
Whitebread  was  labouring  under  a  severe  illness 
when  he  was  apprehended  on  the  charge  of  being 
concerned  in  the  imaginary  Plot,  and  imprisoned 
and  loaded  with  chains. 

YEN.  JOHN  FENWICK,  or  CALDWELL, 
one  of  his  four  companions  who  shared  his  im- 
prisonment, trial  and  martyrdom,  had  been  dis- 
owned by  his  family  on  becoming  a  convert. 
He  was  procurator  for  his  brethren  and  a  most 
diligent  toiler  in  Christ's  vineyard. 

YEN.  WILLIAM  HARCOURT  had  worked 
upon  the  Mission  35  years,  and  was  seventy- 
two  years  of  age.  He  was  rector  of  London  at 
the  time  he  met  the  glorious  fate  for  which  he 
had  daily  prayed.  It  was  on  a  Friday  the  five 
Jesuits  gained  their  Calvary  and  the  joys  of 
Paradise. 

YEN.  JOHN  GAY  AN  and  YEN.  ANTONY 
TURNER  both  laboured  with  great  zeal  and 
success  on  the  English  mission,  the  one  for  a 
period  of  eight  years,  the  other  for  eighteen 
years,  most  of  which  time  was  passed  in  Wor- 
cestershire. 


54    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 
JUNE  23RD,  1592. 

VEN.fROBERT,  or  ROGER  ASHTON,  Lay- 
man. 

THE  biithplace  of  this  Martyr  was  Croston,  in 
Lancashire.  He  was  martyred  at  Tyburn  for 
procuring  a  dispensation  from  Rome  to  marry 
his  second  cousin,  thereby  acknowledging  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  See  in  all  matters 
spiritual. 

JUNE  23RD,  1608. 
YEN.  THOMAS  GARNET,  Priest,  SJ. 

His  father  dedicated  him  to  God  from  his 
birth.  He  studied  at  St.  Omer's  and  later  at 
Valladolid,  where  he  was  made  priest  and  from 
whence  he  was  sent  on  the  English  mission. 
He  was  soon  apprehended  on  suspicion  of  being 
implicated  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  and  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower  where,  for  many  months,  he 
had  no  other  bed  than  the  bare  ground,  whereby 
he  contracted  severe  sciatica.  He  had  long  desired 
to  enter  the  Society  of  Jesus,  and  the  sentence 
of  banishment  now  gave  him  the  opportunity 
of  making  his  novitiate  at  Louvain.  On  return- 
ing from  beyond  the  seas,  contrary  to  the  penal 
statute,  he  was  betrayed  by  an  apostate  priest. 
His  friends  urged  him  to  try  to  escape  from 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  55 

prison,  and  suggested  some  opportunities,  but  a 
more  persuasive  voice  spoke  in  his  heart,  say- 
ing :  Noli  fugere-  '  Do  not  run  away."  Hence- 
forth his  one  fear  was  lest  he  should  be  deprived 
of  the  crown  of  martyrdom  which  he  won  at 
the  age  of  34.  His  last  words  were  those  of  the 
Veni  Creator,  "  sermone  ditans  guttura." 


JUNE  28xH,  1654. 
YEN.  JOHN  SOUTHWORTH,  Secular  Priest. 

HE  was  born  in  Lancashire  and  was  a  younger  son 
of  an  ancient  and  once  wealthy  family.  Educated 
at  Douai,  he  became  an  alumnus  and  priest  of 
that  House.  His  missionary  labours  were  at  first 
in  his  native  county.  After  some  years  he  was 
taken  and  condemned,  but  was  reprieved  and 
kept  a  close  prisoner  in  Lancaster  Castle.  Being 
at  length  released  through  the  influence  of  Queen 
Henrietta  Maria,  he  continued  his  devoted 
labours,  but  was  apprehended  for  the  third  time 
by  a  pursuivant  and  carried  off  from  his  bed  at 
night.  He  was  then  72  years  old.  At  his  trial  he 
refused  to  deny  that  he  was  a  priest,  though 
the  Court  assured  him  that  if  he  did  so  his  life 
would  be  spared,  for  they  were  most  reluctant 
to  pass  judgement  against  him.  The  magistrate 
is  said  to  have  been  so  overcome  by  tears  that 


56     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

it  was  long  before  he  could  pronounce  the  sen- 
tence which  he  professed  the  law  compelled  him 
to  give. 

In  thunder,  lightning  and  rain,  the  Martyr 
was  brought  to  Tyburn,  but  the  storm  did  not 
prevent  many  thousands  of  people,  many  in 
coaches  or  on  horseback,  from  being  present. 
In  his  last  speech,  Father  South  worth  said,  when 
quoting  Our  Lord's  words  :  '  Qui  vult  venire 
post  me.  .  .  .  tollat  suam  et  sequatur  me,'  this 
gallows  I  look  on  as  His  Cross,  which  I  gladly 
take  up  to  follow  my  dear  Saviour." 

JUNE  30TH,  1646. 
YEN.  PHILIP  POWEL,  Priest,  O.S.B. 

'  He  was  of  princely  race,  of  British  blood, 
Nor  yet  the  twentieth  part  so  great  as  good 

....  his  hands  to  every  poor 
Most  open  till  they  blushed  to  ask  for  more, 
Most  temperate,   and  most  constant  to   his 
Christ." 

HE  was  born  in  Brecknockshire,  and  began  his 
studies  in  Abergavenny.  When  sixteen  years  old 
he  came  to  London  to  study  law  under  Father 
Augustine  Baker,  but  being  sent  on  business  to 
Douai,  he  found  his  true  vocation,  and  received 
the  habit  of  St.  Benedict.  On  returning  to 
England  after  his  ordination,  he  laboured  for 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  57 

twenty  years  as  a  missionary.  Then  the  Civil 
War  broke  out,  and  he  was  taken  prisoner,  un- 
justly tried,  and  sentenced  to  death.  He  received 
the  announcement  with  a  "  Deo  gratias,"  adding 
that  owing  to  the  crowd  he  could  not  thank  God 
on  his  knees,  yet  he  did  so  in  his  heart.  He  was 
given  the  choice  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  to 
die,  but  he  refused  to  be  in  any  way  guilty  of  his 
own  death.  When  he  was  told  the  day  was  fixed, 
he  said  :  ;  Welcome  whatever  conies,  God's 
Name  be  praised  !  What  am  I  that  God  thus 
honours  me,  and  will  have  me  die  for  His  Sake  !  " 
"  This  is  the  happiest  day  and  the  greatest 
joy  that  ever  befel  me,"  Father  Powel  said  at 
Tyburn,  "  for  I  am  brought  hither  for  no  other 
cause  or  reason  .  .  .  than  that  I  am  a  Roman 
Catholic  priest,  and  a  monk  of  the  Order  of  St. 
Benedict. 


JULY  IST,  1616. 
YEN.  THOMAS  MAXFIELD,  Secular  Priest. 

HE  was  born  in  Staffordshire  of  a  distinguished 
family  of  that  county.  His  chief  studies  were 
made  abroad,  and  he  began  to  work  on  the 
Mission  in  England  in  1615.  After  exercising 
the  apostolate  for  barely  three  months  he  was 
apprehended,  and  there  ensued  a  period  of 

E 


58     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

ill-treatment,  which  only  ended  with  his  death 
on  the  gibbet.  The  most  inhuman  of  the  tor- 
tures inflicted  on  him  was  his  confinement  in  a 
pair  of  stocks  so  contrived  that  his  body  could 
find  no  relief  either  by  standing  upright  or 
lying  down.  The  darkness  and  filth  of  the  dungeon 
where  he  was  placed  added  to  his  sufferings. 
Before  his  trial  he  had  the  consolation  of  recon- 
ciling to  God  two  from  among  a  gang  of  felons 
who  were  also  awaiting  the  death  sentence. 
When  Father  Maxfield  was  brought  to  the  place 
of  sacrifice,  whither  he  was  accompanied  by  a 
multitude  on  horse  and  foot,  the  gallows  were 
found  to  be  adorned  with  garlands  of  fragrant 
flowers,  and  the  ground  strewn  with  sweet- 
smelling  herbs  and  branches  of  bay  and  laurel. 
TheMartyr,  feeble  and  emaciated  by  eight  months 
of  confinement  and  torture,  but  no  less  cheerful 
than  he  had  ever  been  hitherto,  rejoiced  to  be 
*  a  member  of  that  blessed  house  of  Douai  that 
hath  afforded  our  poor  barren  country  so  much 
good  and  happy  seed." 

His  remains  were  thrown  into  a  pit  under 
fifteen  other  bodies,  two  of  which  were  those  of 
felons  executed  a  month  before.  This,  however, 
did  not  deter  his  devoted  friends  of  the  Spanish 
Embassy  from  coming  by  night  to  rescue  his 
mangled  body. 


!6le00eD  ate  tfjep  tfcat  suffer 
Persecution, 

1Dere  3D.  ©liver  flMunfcet,  Qvimate  ot  all 

3relanfc,  eeeWns  bie  bunteD  sbeep  on  tbe 

mountainside,  connrmetb  tbeir  fainting 

sonls  witb  tbe  cbrism  of  salvation* 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  59 

JULY  IST,  1 68 1. 

YEN.   OLIVER  PLUNKET,    Archbishop  of 
Armagh. 

THE  last  victim  of  the  "  Popish  Plot  "  was,  in 
his  boyhood,  sent  to  Rome  to  be  educated.  For 
some  time  he  lived  with  the  Fathers  of  the 
Oratory  ;  subsequently,  on  the  See  of  Armagh 
falling  vacant,  the  Holy  Father  appointed  him 
Archbishop,  and  Plunket  gladly  returned  to 
his  country,  lately  devastated  by  Cromwell's 
hordes.  He  ordained  clergy,  put  down  abuses, 
built  schools  and  administered  confirmation 
to  thousands  in  the  woods  and  on  the  mountains. 
He  was  often  forced  to  go  in  disguise,  and  the 
episcopal  palace  of  the  successor  of  St.  Patrick 
was  no  more  than  a  thatched  cottage.  When 
the  persecution  broke  out  afresh,  at  the  insti- 
gation of  Titus  Oates,  much  of  his  work  was 
undone,  and  he  was  delivered  to  his  enemies 
by  apostate  priests,  who  afterwards  bore  false 
witness  against  him.  He  was  sent  to  London, 
and  after  eighteen  months  in  prison  underwent 
a  most  unjust  trial.  He  received  the  death  sen- 
tence with  a  joyous  '  Deo  gratias."  His  last 
days  were  spent  in  earnest  but  tranquil  prepar- 
ation for  the  final  sacrifice.  His  devoted  friend 
and  confessor,  Father  Corker,  wrote  of  him. 


6o    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

that  his  joy  seemed  to  increase  with  his  danger 
and  was  fully  accomplished  by  an  assurance 
of  death.  The  saintly  white-haired  Primate  of 
all  Ireland  was  drawn  to  Tyburn  in  his  ponti- 
fical robes,  and  laid  down  his  life  for  his  sheep 
"  with  a  courage  fearless  of  death." 


JULY  6iH,  1585. 

YEN.  THOMAS  ALFIELD,  Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  THOMAS  WEBLEY,  Layman. 

YEN.  THOMAS  ALFIELD  was  born  in 
Gloucester.  He  was  ordained  at  Rheims,  and 
after  his  return  to  the  English  Mission  he  found 
means  to  import  into  the  kingdom  some  copies 
of  Dr.  Allen's  "  Modest  Answer  to  the  English 
Persecutors."  This  was  in  reply  to  a  book  sup- 
posed to  have  been  written  by  Cecil,  Lord 
Treasurer,  in  which  he  attempted  to  falsely 
persuade  the  world  that  the  Catholics  who  had 
suffered  in  England  since  the  Queen's  accession 
to  the  throne,  had  not  suffered  for  religion  but 
for  treason. 

Father  Alfield  circulated  Dr.  Allen's  "  An- 
swers "  by  the  help  of  THOMAS  WEBLEY, 
a  dyer.  Both  priest  and  layman  were  soon  called 
to  account  for  the  part  they  had  taken,  and  were 
most  cruelly  tortured  in  the  attempt  to  make 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  61 

them  reveal  the  names  of  the  persons  to  whom 
the  books  had  been  distributed.  They  were 
brought  to  trial  and  suffered  at  Tyburn  on  the 
day  following  their  condemnation.  Both  had 
their  lives  offered  to  them  if  they  would  renounce 
the  Pope  and  acknowledge  Queen  Elizabeth  to 
be  the  head  of  the  Church.  They  cheerfully 
chose  martyrdom  rather  than  listen  to  such 
conditions. 

JULY  I4TH,  1679. 
YEN.    RICHARD    LANGHORNE,   Layman. 

A  BARRISTER  and  a  zealous  Catholic,  Langhorne 
was  one  of  the  first  victims  of  Titus  Gates  and 
his  associates,  being  impeached  by  them  as  a 
ringleader  in  their  pretended  plot,  and  especially 
as  conspiring  to  kill  the  King.  After  more  than 
eight  months'  close  imprisonment  in  Newgate, 
he  was  tried,  and  false  witnesses  having  been 
called,  he  was  condemned  with  Father  White- 
bread,  the  English  Provincial,  and  the  other 
four  Jesuit  Fathers  who  were  his  companions. 

He  declared  on  the  scaffold  at  Tyburn,  that 
not  only  a  pardon,  but  many  preferments  and 
estates  had  been  offered  to  him  if  he  would  for- 
sake his  religion. 

As  the  hangman  was  placing  the  rope  round 
his  neck,  he  took  it  into  his  hands  and  kissed  it. 


62    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

Crossing  himself,  he  prayed  :  '  Blessed  Jesus, 
into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  soul  and  spirit, 
now  at  this  instant  take  me  into  Paradise.  I  am 
desirous  to  be  with  my  Jesus." 

JULY  26TH,  1641. 
YEN.  WILLIAM  WARD,  Secular  Priest. 

His  real  name  was  Webster,  and  he  was  born 
at  Thornley,  in  Westmoreland.  At  the  time  of 
his  martyrdom  he  was  eighty  years  old,  and  was 
the  first  priestly  victim  of  the  Long  Parliament. 
He  had  toiled  twelve  years  on  the  English  Mission 
and  had  spent  nearly  double  that  time  in  various 
prisons.  He  was  also  banished  several  times. 

On  first  landing  on  the  coast  of  Scotland  on 
his  return  from  Douai,  he  was  thrust  into  a 
totally  dark  underground  dungeon  for  three 
years.  Father  Ward  belonged  to  the  Third  Order 
of  St.  Francis,  and  was  a  great  lover  of  poverty, 
and  austere  both  towards  himself  and  towards 
those  he  directed,  by  whom,  however,  he  was 
much  loved.  He  had  always  had  a  great  de- 
votion to  the  Mother  of  Our  Blessed  Lady, 
inviting  all  his  penitents  who  bore  her  name  to 
join  him  in  keeping  her  solemn  feast.  It  was  on 
St.  Anne's  Day  that  he  obtained  the  favour  of 
laying  down  his  life  for  Christ.  On  that  morning 
one  of  his  friends  brought  him  a  new  coat. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  63 

You  are  right  to  dress  me  better  than  usual," 
he  said,  "  since  I  am  going  to  a  more  splendid 
banquet  and  a  more  joyful  wedding  than  any  at 
which  I  have  ever  been  present." 

"  If  God  had  given  me  a  thousand  lives,"  he 
said  on  the  scaffold,  '  I  should  deem  myself 
happy  to  sacrifice  them  all  for  my  priesthood 
and  the  Catholic  Church."  Told  that  he  was 
being  put  to  death  for  seducing  the  people, 
"  Would  to  God,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  had  con- 
verted more.  Nay,  even  all  England  ! ' 


JULY  3 IST,  1581. 
BLESSED  EVERARD  HANSE,  Secular  Priest. 

HE  was  born  in  Northamptonshire,  and  brought 
up  as  a  Protestant.  At  a  time  when  he  had  fallen 
ill  in  the  midst  of  his  fame  as  a  popular  preacher, 
he  was  converted  to  the  Catholic  religion.  On 
his  recovery  he  entered  the  English  Seminary 
at  Rheims,  returning  to  England  after  his  ordin- 
ation. His  apostolate  only  lasted  a  few  weeks. 
One  day,  when  visiting  prisoners  for  the  Faith 
in  the  Marshalsea,  he  was  apprehended  on 
suspicion  of  being  a  seminary  priest,  some  spies 
having  noticed  that  his  boots  were  of  foreign 
manufacture.  He  was  cast  into  a  dungeon  in 
Newgate  with  thieves  and  felons,  and  there  laden 
with  heavy  chains. 


64     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

The  day  before  he  offered  the  sacrifice  of  his 
life,  he  wrote  to  his  brother  :  '  I  pray  you  be 
careful  for  my  parents.  .  .  my  prayers  shall 
not  be  wanting  to  aid  you  by  God's  grace.  Give 
thanks  to  God  for  all  that  He  hath  sent ;  cast 
not  yourself  into  dangers  wilfully,  but  pray  to 
God,  when  occasion  is  offered,  you  may  take  it 
with  patience.  The  comforts  at  the  present 
moment  are  unspeakable,  the  dignity  too  high 
for  a  sinner,  but  God  is  merciful.  Bestow  my 
things  you  find  ungiven  away  upon  my  poor 
kinsfolk.  .  .  .  Have  me  commended  to  my 
friends,  let  them  think  I  will  not  forget  them. 
The  day  and  hour  of  my  birth  is  at  hand.  .  .  ." 

In  the  anguish  of  a  most  cruel  death,  the 
Martyr  was  heard  to  cry  :  "  O  happy  day  ! ' 


AUGUST  4TH,  1540. 

BLESSED  WILLIAM  HORNE,   Carthusian 
Lay  Brother. 

YEN.    EDMUND    BRINDHOLM,    Secular 
Priest. 

YEN.  CLEMENT  PHILPOT,  Layman. 

BLESSED  WILLIAM  HORNE  was  one  of 
the  ten  Carthusians  of  the  London  Charterhouse 
who,  on  refusing  to  sign  the  Oath  of  the  King's 
supremacy,  were  dragged  to  Newgate  and  there 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  65 

treated  with  inhuman  cruelty.  He  and  his  com- 
panions, three  Priests,  one  Deacon,  and  five 
Lay  Brothers,  were  rivetted  by  means  of  heavy 
fetters  fastened  to  their  necks  and  legs,  to  the 
walls  and  columns  of  their  dungeon.  Their 
hands  were  bound  behind  them,  and  they  were 
thus  left  to  perish  of  starvation.  From  this  fate 
they  were  saved  for  a  time  by  the  courageous 
charity  of  Blessed  Thomas  More's  adopted 
daughter,  Margaret  Clement,  who  came  to 
minister  to  and  feed  them  at  the  risk  of  her  life. 
When  she  could  do  this  no  longer,  the  valiant 
confessors  laid  down  their  lives  one  by  one  till 
William  Home  alone  survived.  Some  time  later 
he  was  taken  from  prison  to  Tyburn  there  to 
consummate  his  sacrifice  and  share  his  triumph 
with  Father  BRINDHOLM  and  CLEMENT 
PHILPOT.  He  was  the  last  of  the  fifteen  sons 
of  Blessed  John  Houghton,  who  followed  him 
along  the  road  to  martyrdom. 


66    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

AUGUST  24TH,  1601. 

YEN.  NICHOLAS  TICHBOURNE,  Layman. 
YEN.  THOMAS  HACKSHOT,  Layman. 

YEN.  NICHOLAS  TICHBOURNE  was 
born  at  Hartley,  in  Hampshire.  He  was  related 
to  Yen.  Thomas  Tichbourne,  Priest,  martyred 
at  Tyburn  a  year  later.  Father  Tichbourne  owed 
this  extra  time  of  his  apostolate  to  the  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  of  his  kinsman  and  of  Thomas 
Hackshot,  who  laid  down  their  lives  in  his 
stead,  being  condemned  for  having  assisted  in 
rescuing  him. 

YEN.  THOMAS  HACKSHOT  was  born  at 
Mursley,  in  Buckinghamshire.  His  part  in  the 
matter  was  this  :  Knowing  that  the  holy  prisoner 
was  to  be  conducted  through  a  certain  street  by 
a  single  keeper,  he  awaited  their  coming,  and 
knocking  down  the  officer,  gave  the  priest  the 
opportunity  to  escape.  Being  less  careful  of  his 
own  safety,  he  was  seized  and  cast  into  the 
dungeon  which  the  priest  had  just  vacated. 
There  he  endured  diverse  torments,  till  at 
length  he  was  brought  to  trial  and  sentenced  to 
die  for  the  same  cause  of  Christian  charity  with 
Nicholas  Tichbourne. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  67 

AUGUST  30TH,  1588. 

YEN.   RICHARD  LEIGH,   Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  EDWARD  SHELLEY,  Layman. 
YEN.  RICHARD  MARTIN,  Layman. 
YEN.  RICHARD  FLOWER,  Layman. 
YEN.  JOHN  ROCHE,  Layman. 
YEN.  MARGARET  WARD,  Gentlewoman. 

YEN.  R.  LEIGH  was  martyred  for  the  sole 
cause  of  his  priesthood,  and  his  companions 
either  for  being  reconciled  to  the  Church  or 
for  assisting  and  relieving  priests. 

It  was  for  this  latter  offence  that  MARGARET 
WARD  was  condemned.  Hearing  that  Father 
Watson  was  suffering  cruel  torments  in  Bride- 
well, where  no  one  ventured  to  succour  him,  she 
found  means,  by  making  friends  with  the  jailor's 
wife,  to  give  him  food  and  finally  procured 
him  a  rope  by  which  he  made  his  escape.  She 
was  at  once  apprehended,  imprisoned  and 
loaded  with  irons.  She  was  moreover  hung  by 
the  hands  and  cruelly  scourged,  all  of  which 
sufferings  she  accepted  as  preludes  to  the 
martyrdom  by  which  she  hoped  with  the  grace 
of  God  to  be  honoured.  When  brought  to  trial, 
she  said  that  never  in  her  life  had  she  done  any- 
thing of  which  she  repented  less,  that  death  for 
such  a  cause  would  be  very  welcome  to  her,  and 


68    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

that  she  was  willing  to  lay  down  not  one  life  only, 
but  many  if  she  had  them.  She  showed  to  the 
end  an  unswerving  constancy. 

SEPTEMBER  7TH,  1644. 

YEN.  RALPH  CORBY,  Priest,  S.J. 
YEN.  JOHN  DUCKETT,  Secular  Priest. 

WHILE  yet  a  student  at  Douai,  RALPH  CORBY 
was  much  given  to  mental  prayer,  passing  long 
nights  in  heavenly  communications.  He  be- 
longed to  a  very  religious  family.  His  father  and 
two  brothers  became  Jesuits,  and  his  mother 
and  two  sisters  entered  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict. 
In  the  second  year  after  Ralph  Corby's  icturn 
to  England,  when  on  his  way  to  baptize  two 
children,  he  was  captured  by  some  Parliament 
soldiers  and  committed  to  prison  on  account  of 
his  priesthood.  He  was  sent  to  London  to  be 
tried  at  the  same  time  as  John  Duckett. 

YEN.  JOHN  DUCKETT  was  born  at  Under- 
winder,  in  Yorkshire,  in  1613,  and  was  made 
priest  in  1639.  It  was  on  the  Feast  of  the  Visi- 
tation of  Our  Lady  that  he  was  apprehended. 
He  was  taken  to  London,  together  with  Father 
Corby,  and  the  two  confessors,  having  been 
condemned,  were  taken  back  to  prison  to  "  wait 
for  that  blessed  and  happy  Saturday  which  is 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN          69 

the  Vigil  of  Her  glorious  nativity."  When  hopes 
were  given  that  the  life  of  one  of  them  might  be 
saved,  neither  was  willing  to  accept  the  offer  at 
the  expense  of  the  other.  Ven.  John  Duckett 
had  often  testified  that  "  ever  since  he  was  a 
priest  he  did  much  fear  to  live  but  nothing  fear 
to  die."  Arrived  at  Tyburn,  the  Martyrs  em- 
braced each  other  and  kissed  the  rope  and 
gallows,  dying  most  joyfully  for  the  love  of  their 
Saviour  and  for  the  cause  of  their  religion.  John 
Duckett  was  thirty,  and  Ralph  Corby  forty-six 
years  of  age. 

OCTOBER  STH,  1586. 

VEN.  JOHN  ADAMS,  Secular  Priest. 

VEN.  JOHN  LOWE,  Secular  Priest. 

VEN.  RICHARD  DIBDALE,  Secular  Priest. 

THESE  three  Martyrs  were  condemned  and 
suffered  martyrdom  by  reason  of  their  priestly 
character  and  for  exercising  their  sacred  func- 
tions. The  first  was  born  in  Dorsetshire. 

VEN.  JOHN  LOWE  was  a  Londoner.  He 
was  a  convert  and  had  been  a  Protestant  Minister. 

VEN.  RICHARD  DIBDALE  was  born  in 
Worcestershire.  He  practised  the  office  of  an 
exorcist,  and  delivered  and  reconciled  to  the 


70     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

Church  many  possessed  persons  who,  by  for- 
saking their  religion,  had  fallen  into  the  power 
of  the  Evil  One.  He  forced  the  devils  to  confess 
to  their  confusion  the  virtue  which  is  contained 
in  the  Sign  of  the  Cross,  Holy  Water,  and  the 
relics,  both  of  the  ancient  saints  and  of  the  Mar- 
tyrs who  suffered  in  England  in  those  days  for 
the  Catholic  Faith. 

OCTOBER  I2TH,  1642. 

YEN.  THOMAS  (JOHN  BAPTIST)  BULL- 
AKER,  Priest,  O.F.M. 

HE  was  born  at  Chichester,  in  Sussex,  in  1604. 
His  life  was  given  to  God  from  the  first.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  he  obtained  permission  from 
his  father  to  become  a  missionary  priest.  He 
is  described  as  a  tall,  handsome  youth,  grave, 
modest  and  remarkably  like  the  pictures  of  Our 
Lord. 

After  studying  for  a  short  time  at  a  Jesuit 
College,  at  Valladolid,  Bullaker  became  con- 
vinced that  his  vocation  lay  rather  in  the  Order 
of  St.  Francis.  He  was  ordained  in  time  as  a 
Franciscan  priest,  and  soon  after  he  begged  a 
secular  dress  and  set  off  on  foot  to  Bordeaux, 
landing  in  England  without  a  penny.  He  laboured 
and  endured  many  hardships  on  the  mission 
for  eleven  years,  and  was  finally  seized,  by  the 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  71 

apostate  Wadsworth,  while  saying  Mass.  His 
hostess  and  her  little  son  were  likewise  taken 
by  the  pursuivants.  At  his  trial,  when  he  was 
called  a  traitor  and  seducer  of  the  people,  he 
said  :  '  Now  you  give  me  occasion  to  rejoice, 
because  you  treat  me  with  the  same  title  as  the 
Jews  did  my  Saviour." 

Sentenced  to  be  taken  on  a  hurdle  to  Tyburn, 
there  to  be  hanged,  cut  down  and  beheaded, 
Father  Bullaker  knelt  and  recited  the  Te  Deum. 
To  one  who  informed  him  in  prison  of  the  early 
date  of  his  death,  he  said  :  '  I  thank  you 
heartily,  my  friend,  for  this  long  desired  and 
joyful  news.  Believe  me,  were  it  not  for  my 
great  poverty,  I  would  not  send  you  away 
empty-handed." 

From  the  scaffold  he  preached  with  his  dying 
lips  of  Christ  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  ' 

NOVEMBER  27111,  1633. 
YEN.  ARTHUR  McGEOGHAN,  Priest,  O.P. 

HAVING  completed  his  studies  in  Spain,  he  was 
seized  when  returning  to  his  Province,  and  cast 
into  prison  in  London  by  English  heretics.  He 
was  brought  to  trial  under  a  malicious  pretext, 
and  condemned  to  death.  At  Tyburn  he  made 
open  profession  of  being  a  Catholic  and  a 


72    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

Dominican,  and,  with  a  fearless  countenance, 
met  his  end  praying  :  '  O  thou  glorious  Virgin, 
Mother  of  Our  God  and  Saviour,  pray  to  thy 
Son  Jesus  Christ  to  receive  my  soul." 

He  was  hanged,  and  while  still  alive  his  limbs 
were  cut  asunder. 

His  judge,  Falkland,  Viceroy  of  Ireland, 
suffered  the  penalty  of  the  unjust  sentence,  as 
he  himself  was  led  to  acknowledge  when  his 
leg  was  broken  in  an  extraordinary  way. 

After  the  martyrdom,  an  enquiry  was  held 
at  the  wish  of  Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  the 
result  of  which  was  that  Charles  I  caused 
placards  to  be  posted,  on  which  it  was  stated 
that  Father  McGeoghan  had  been  unjustly 
accused  and  condemned,  and  those  responsible 
for  the  crime  were  held  up  to  scorn. 

DECEMBER  IST,  1581. 

BLESSED    EDMUND    CAMPION,    Priest, 
S.J. 

BLESSED  RALPH  SHERWIN,  Secular  Priest. 

BLESSED   ALEXANDER   BRIANT,  Priest, 
SJ. 

A  PLAY  on  the  name  of  the  first  of  these  Martyrs 
described  exactly  what  he  was — the  Pope's 
C(h)ampion.  Nothing  could  daunt  his  valour, 
neither  promises  of  worldly  gain,  the  basest 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  73 

calumny,  public  ridicule,  the  exquisite  torture 
of  the  rack,  none  of  these  things,  which  were  in 
turn  applied  to  break  his  spirit,  succeeded.  It  is 
true  he  had  consented  to  be  made  a  deacon 
after  the  new  manner  when  he  was  at  Oxford, 
but  his  repentance  for  this  momentary  weak- 
ness was  so  strong  that  it  won  for  him  his 
vocation  to  the  Priesthood  in  the  Society  of 
Jesus,  and  was  a  powerful  incentive  to  be  true 
to  the  Faith  ever  after.  It  was  in  accordance 
with  Dr.  Allan's  advice  that  he  embraced  the 
perilous  mission  of  re-evangelising  his  own 
country,  and  it  was  by  a  series  of  hairbreadth 
escapes  that  he  carried  forward  an  apostolate  of 
marvellous  fruitfulness.  His  natural  gifts  stood 
him  in  good  stead  ;  he  had  the  wit  and  elo- 
quence that  had  led  to  his  fall  in  the  days  when 
he  cared  for  a  Queen's  praise  ;  now  he  devoted 
all  his  talents  to  the  Heavenly  Master,  hoping 
for  no  sweeter  reward  than  that  which  was  granted 
to  him  at  the  age  of  forty- two.  After  suffering 
such  cruel  torments  in  prison  that  it  was  feared 
the  rack-men  had  gone  too  far  and  the  gallows 
would  be  deprived  of  a  prey,  he  was  neverthe- 
less found  in  a  state  of  calm  cheerfulness  on  the 
day  of  execution. 

When  his   turn  came,   BLESSED   RALPH 
SHERWIN  kissed  with  great  devotion  the  blood 

F 


74    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

of  Edmund  Campion  dripping  from  the  hands 
of  the  executioners.  Like  Campion,  it  was  asked 
of  him  very  expressly  whom  he  meant  when  he 
prayed  for  and  forgave  the  Queen.  He  replied  : 
"  Yea,  for  Elizabeth  Queen,  I  now  at  this  instant 
pray  my  Lord  God.  ...  He  died  with  the 
cry  on  his  lips  :  '  Jesu,  Jesu,  Jesu,  be  to  me  a 
Jesus." 

BLESSED  ALEXANDER  BRIANT.  The 
third  of  these  Priests,  who  the  night  before  had 
heard  one  another's  confessions  in  prison,  im- 
mediately followed  the  other  two  on  the  fatal 
cart.  His  martyrdom  was  even  more  cruel  owing 
to  the  negligence  of  the  hangman,  and  also  to 
the  inhuman  efforts  of  those  who,  when  he  was 
in  his  last  extremity,  endeavoured  to  make  him 
recant.  Again  the  question  was  put :  "  What  of 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Queen  ?  '  He  declared 
that  being  a  true  Catholic  he  fully  accepted  the 
Bull  of  Pius  V,  by  which  the  Queen  was 
formally  excommunicated.  He  then  began  the 
*  Miserere  *  and  yielded  up  his  soul  to  God 
after  long  torments." 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  75 

DECEMBER  3RD,  1678. 
YEN.  EDWARD  COLEMAN,  Layman. 

HE  was  a  minister's  son,  and  was  born  in 
Suffolk  and  educated  at  Cambridge.  Afterwards 
he  became  a  zealous  convert.  The  Duchess  of 
York  made  him  her  secretary,  and  he  was  thus 
enabled  to  procure  more  liberty  of  conscience 
for  Catholics  and  to  stand  them  in  good  stead 
in  many  ways.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Titus 
Gates  Plot,  some  letters  he  had  written  to  Pere 
La  Chaise,  the  French  King's  confessor,  were 
seized,  and  he  was  brought  to  trial  charged  with 
plotting  against  the  King's  life,  raising  rebellion 
in  Ireland,  etc.  Gates  and  Bedloe  further  de- 
clared he  had  received  a  commission  '  from 
the  General  of  the  Jesuits  "  to  be  secretary  of 
State.  When  it  was  objected  that  there  were 
many  contradictions  in  his  evidence,  Gates 
complained  that  he  had  undergone  great  fatigue 
for  two  days  and  two  nights  in  the  pursuit  after 
Jesuits,  and  this  had  so  exhausted  him  that  he 
did  not  know  what  he  said. 

Edward  Coleman  denied  all  that  was  sworn 
against  him,  protesting  his  innocence  with  his 
last  breath.  He  died  having  done  all  in  his  power 
to  help  the  cause  of  religion, 


76    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

DECEMBER  5TH,  1612. 
YEN.  JOHN  ALMOND,  Secular  Priest. 

HE  was  born  at  Allerton,  near  Liverpool,  and 
made  his  theological  studies  at  Rheims  and 
Rome,  returning  to  England  a  priest.  Being 
condemned  for  this  cause,  he  was  drawn  from 
Newgate  to  Tyburn  between  seven  and  eight 
o'clock  in  the  morning  on  December  5th,  1612. 
His  first  act  at  the  place  of  execution  was  to  take 
off  his  hat  and  bless  God  with  a  loud  voice  for 
holding  him  worthy  to  die  for  His  Name  and 
His  Glory.  He  then  turned  to  the  Sheriff  and 
asked  him  simply  what  he  was  to  do.  He  was 
told  to  get  into  the  cart  standing  under  the 
Tree.  This  he  did  with  difficulty  owing  to  the 
ill-treatment  he  had  received  and  his  long  im- 
prisonment. He  then  told  the  bystanders  how 
he  had  come  there  to  die  for  Christ's  cause,  and 
how  glad  and  willing  he  was  to  lose  his  life  for 
His  honour,  regretting  nothing  but  that  he  had 
no  more  lives  to  lose  nor  more  blood  to  shed  for 
his  blessed  Redeemer.  He  placed  all  his  hopes 
in  God,  confident  that  He  would  strengthen 
him  with  His  power.  At  no  time  did  Father 
Almond  show  signs  of  fear  or  faint-heartedness  ; 
he  possessed  to  the  end  the  same  smiling 
serenity  with  which  he  had  set  out  on  the  hurdle. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  77 

He  desired  the  executioner  to  make  known  to 
him  when  the  cart  was  to  be  drawn  away  that 
he  might  die  with  the  sweet  Name  of  Jesus  on 
his  lips. 

The  Protestant  Bishop  of  London,  who  was 
one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  Martyr's 
condemnation,  is  believed  to  have  received  the 
grace  to  die  in  the  communion  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church. 

DECEMBER  IOTH,  1591. 

YEN.  POLYDORE  PLASDEN,  Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  EUSTACE  WHITE,  Secular  Priest. 
YEN.  SYDNEY  HODSON,  Layman. 
YEN.  BRYAN  LACEY,  Layman. 
YEN.  JOHN  MASON,  Layman. 

BEING  brought  to  Tyburn,  the  two  priests  were 
the  first  to  yield  up  their  lives.  They  had  all 
been  captured  at  the  Mass  said  by  Father 
Gennings  in  the  house  of  Yen.  Swithin  Wells, 
who  with  Father  Gennings  was  martyred  at 
Gray's  Inn  Fields. 

At  Tyburn,  when  pressed  by  specious  ques- 
tions as  to  whether  he  would  defend  the  Queen 
against  the  Pope,  POLYDORE  PLASDEN  re- 
plied :  '  I  am  a  Catholic  priest,  therefore  I 
would  never  fight,  nor  counsel  others  to  fight 


78    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

against  my  religion,  for  that  we.re  to  deny  my 
faith.  O  Christ,"  said  he,  looking  up  to  heaven, 
and  kissing  the  rope  "  I  will  never  deny  Thee 
for  a  thousand  lives."  He  was  thereupon 
hanged  as  a  traitor. 

FATHER  WHITE,  who  was  the  next  to 
follow  him,  had  already  suffered  much  while 
in  Bridewell  under  the  power  of  the  inhuman 
Topcliffe,  being  once  hung  by  the  hands  in  iron 
manacles  for  eight  hours  in  the  effort  to  induce 
him  to  reveal  the  names  of  those  in  whose  houses 
he  had  said  Mass.  No  torture,  however,  could 
wring  from  him  any  other  words  than  *  Lord, 
more  pain  if  Thou  pleasest  and  more  patience." 

YEN.  SYDNEY  HODSON,  BRYAN  LACEY 
and  JOHN  MASON,  the  three  laymen,  who 
were  their  companions,  were  martyred  for 
having  assisted  and  defended  priests. 

DECEMBER  IOTH,  1610. 

YEN.  JOHN  ROBERTS,  Priest,  O.S.B. 
YEN.  THOMAS  SOMERS,  Secular  Priest. 

YEN.  JOHN  ROBERTS  was  born  in  Merion- 
ethshire in  Wales,  and  received  his  education 
abroad,  passing  successively  from  Rheims  to 
Rome  and  thence  to  Spain,  where  he  entered 
the  Order  of  St.  Benedict.  His  apostolic  zeal  and 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  79 

devotion  was  put  to  the  proof,  especially  at  the 
time  of  the  Great  Plague,  when  equally  fearless 
of  the  persecutors  and  of  the  infection,  he  gave 
himself  up  entitely  to  ministering  to  the  souls 
and  bodies  of  those  afflicted.  He  was  apprehended 
at  Mass  on  the  first  Sunday  of  Advent,  1610, 
and  was  taken  to  prison  in  his  priestly  vestments. 
Being  brought  to  Tyburn,  he  rejoiced  to  see 
that,  like  his  Master,  he  was  to  die  among  thieves 
and  almost  the  last  words  he  spoke  were  words 
of  encouragement  and  absolution.  The  spirit  of 
peace  and  joy  that  characterised  him  at  all  times 
was  manifest  to  all  who  witnessed  the  manner 
in  which  he  suffered.  Two  days  after  his 
martyrdom  his  precious  remains  were  dug  out 
of  the  pit  where  they  had  been  thrown  ;  a  part 
of  these  relics  were  taken  to  Douai,  and  one  arm 
was  sent  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Martin  at  Compos- 
tella,  where  he  had  made  profession  and  re- 
ceived Holy  Orders  ten  years  before. 

Hiscompanioninmartyrdom,  VEN.  THOMAS 
SOMERS,  had  dedicated  his  labours  to  poor 
Catholics  with  such  zealous  love  as  to  be  com- 
monly known  as  the  parish  priest  of  London. 
He  was  born  in  Westmoreland  and  spent  part 
of  his  early  manhood  teaching  in  a  grammar 
school  in  his  native  countv.  He  counselled 

^ 

many  a  youth  to  join  the  students  of  the  English 


8o    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

College  at  Douai,  and  when  the  opportunity 
occurred  he  himself  went  to  Douai  and  in  due 
time  became  a  missionary  priest.  In  this  capacity 
his  work  in  England  lasted  but  four  years. 

DECEMBER  IITH,  1643. 

YEN.  ARTHUR  (FRANCIS)  BELL,  Priest, 
O.F.M. 

HE  was  born  near  Worcester,  and  received  his 
early  education  almost  entirely  from  his  mother. 
At  the  age  of  24  he  left  England  to  study  for  the 
priesthood.  It  was  during  the  time  of  the  Civil 
Wars  that  Father  Bell,  after  labouring  on  the 
Mission  for  nine  years,  was  apprehended  by 
the  Parliament  soldiers  on  suspicion  of  being  a 
spy.  They  searched  him  and  found  among  other 
papers,  a  form  for  blessing  the  cord  of  St. 
Francis,  and  this  they  imagined  was  a  spell.  He 
was  stripped  of  sword,  money  and  clothes,  and 
clad  in  an  old  tattered  soldier's  coat,  and  thus 
carried  on  horseback  to  London  as  an  object  of 
derision  in  every  town  and  village  through  which 
he  passed. 

Father  Bell  had  been  in  Newgate  twenty-four 
hours  when  he  received  a  letter  telling  him  of 
his  election  as  Guardian  of  the  Convent  at 
Douai,  which  office  had  been  vacant  since  the 
martyrdom  of  Father  Heath. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  81 

At  his  trial  he  returned  hearty  thanks  to  his 
accusers,  saying :  c  I  shall  most  willingly  and 
with  the  greatest  joy  die  with  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  and  Martyrs,  my  cause  being  the  same 
as  theirs.  "  His  face  bore  witness  to  the  sweet- 
ness and  serenity  of  his  soul.  On  coming  to 
Tyburn  he  said  :  "  Now  I  see  verified  in  me 
what  was  foretold  by  happy  Thomas  Bullaker," 
for  that  Martyr  had  said  before  winning  his  own 
crown  a  year  ago  :  '  God  will  have  me  to  go 
first,  but  you  shall  soon  follow  me." 

Father  Bell  was  left  to  hang  for  the  space  of  a 
Miserere.  Under  his  secular  coat  was  found 
the  habit  of  his  Order. 


DECEMBER  I2TH,  1642. 
YEN.  THOMAS  HOLLAND,  Priest,  SJ. 

HE  was  born  in  Lancashire,  and  sent  over  while 
still  very  young,  to  the  English  College  at  St. 
Omer's,  and  from  thence  to  Valladolid,  being 
finally  ordained  priest  at  Liege.  For  some  time 
he  was  minister  at  the  house  of  the  Jesuits  at 
Ghent.  After  he  had  pronounced  his  vows,  he 
was  sent  upon  the  Mission  in  the  hope  that  the 
change  would  restore  his  health. 

A  strict  search  for  priests  was  being  made  at 


82  MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN 

the  time,  and  he  was  forced  to  lie  in  close  con- 
finement, scarcely  venturing  to  walk  in  the 
garden  of  the  house  that  sheltered  him.  Under 
cover  of  darkness  and  disguise,  he  contrived  to 
serve  many  souls,  especially  among  the  poor. 
At  length  he  was  apprehended  and  sentenced 
to  die,  to  which  he  calmly  responded  :  '  Deo 
Gratias." 

At  Tyburn  he  heartily  thanked  God  for  being 
the  first  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  to  be  condemned 
to  death  under  that  Parliament.  He  yielded  up 
his  life  praying  for  the  royal  family,  the  parlia- 
ment, and  the  whole  nation,"  for  whose  pros- 
perity and  conversion  to  the  Catholic  Faith," 
he  said,  "  if  I  had  as  many  lives  as  there  are 
hairs  on  my  head,  drops  of  water  in  the  ocean, 
or  stars  in  the  firmament,  I  would  most  willingly 
sacrifice  them  all."  These  words  were  greeted 
with  a  shout  of  applause  from  the  crowd. 

Of  the  Martyr's  character  it  is  said  "  that  he 
had  extraordinary  talents  for  promoting  the 
greater  glory  of  God,  and  that  he  made  an  extra- 
ordinary use  of  them." 


SMALL  GUIDE  FOR  A  VISIT  TO   THE 
ORATORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  MARTYRS 

ENEATH  the  Chapel  of  Perpetual  Ex- 
I position  at  Tyburn  Convent  is  the  Oratory 
of  the  English  Martyrs, the  memorial  shrine 
of  one  hundred  and  five  priests,  religious,  lay- 
men and  women,  who  laid  down  their  lives  at 
Tyburn  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  Faith. 

The  Oratory  is  found  on  the  left  on  entering 
the  hall.  Visitors  are  admitted  on  applying  to 
the  portress,  and  may  thus  make  a  closer  in- 
spection of  the  reredos  and  the  paintings  than 
is  possible  through  the  grilled  door.  The 
precious  contents  of  the  reliquaries  on  the  walls 
especially  invite  examination.  They  are  the  chief 
treasure  of  this  little  shrine,  and  explain  its 
existence.  Gratitude  towards  those  whom  they 
recall  has  inspired  several  anonymous  bene- 
factors to  complete  what  the  Nuns  had  begun 
in  coming  to  Tyburn.  They  accordingly  offered 
to  decorate  the  Oratory  in  honour  of  the 
Martyrs  who  shed  their  blood  within  a  few  yards 
of  this  very  spot,  and  one  of  the  first  effects  of 


84     THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

their  undertaking  was  the  erection  over  the  altar 
of  a 

REPLICA  OF  TYBURN  GALLOWS. 

r 

On  the  beams  of  the  gallows  are  inscribed 
the  last  words  of  Ven.  Henry  Heath  :  "  Jesus, 
convert  England  !  Jesus  have  mercy  on  this 
country  "  (now  the  daily  prayer  of  the  Guild  of 
Our  Lady  of  Ransom),  and  the  dying  cry  of  Bl. 
Thomas  Forde  and  other  victims  of  the  Triple 
Tree  :  "  Jesu,  Jesu,  Jesu,  esto  mihi,  Jesus  ' 
(Jesus,  Jesus,  Jesus,  be  to  me  a  Jesus  !)  Two 
relics  of  Father  Heath  will  be  found  encased  on 
the  walls. 

At  the  back  of  the  Altar,  setting  off  the 
Gallows,  hangs  a  curtain  embroidered  with 
palms  and  crowns,  above  which  are  emblazoned 
the  Arms  of  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  Ireland, 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  It  is  the  work  of  the  boys 
of  St.  Joseph's  School  of  Arts  and  Crafts  at  the 
Benedictine  Abbey  of  Maredsous.  By  them 
were  also  wrought  the  six  jewelled  lamps  that 
hang  from  the  beams  of  "  Tyburn  Tree,"  while 
an  example  of  their  skill  in  carving  is  shewn  in 
the  oaken  reredos. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  85 

REREDOS. 

It  contains  seven  exquisite  statuettes  repre- 
senting Our  Lady,  Queen  of  Martyrs,  and  six  of 
the  principal  Beati  who  died  at  Tyburn.  They 
have  been  chosen  as  typical  of  the  various  classes 
and  orders  found  in  their  ranks.  Taking  the 
figures  in  order,  starting  from  the  left,  they  are, 
first  that  of  YEN.  THOMAS  SHERWOOD,  a 
young  layman  cruelly  tortured  before  his  execu- 
tion during  the  Elizabethan  persecution.  The 
Order  of  the  Privy  Council  still  exists  by  which 
he  was  officially  consigned  to  the  dungeon 
"  among  the  rats  "  in  the  Tower  of  London — 
Harrison  Ainsworth,  it  will  be  remembered, 
describes  this  place  of  torment  in  his  novel  The 
Tower  of  London — he  stands  tied  to  a  post  while 
two  great  rats  tear  his  flesh. 

The  next  figure  is  that  of  BLESSED  ED- 
MUND CAMPION,  S.J.,  writing  his  famous 
book,  Decem  Rationes,  with  which  he  shook  first 
Oxford,  and  then  all  the  realm.  He  suffered 
unspeakable  torments  in  prison  before  rack  gave 
place  to  rope  and  knife,  and  Tyburn  ended  his 
martyrdom.  He  was  famous  for  the  sanctity  of 
his  life,  his  wit  and  the  sweetness  of  his  dis- 
position. 

The  third  figure  is  that  of  the  Proto -martyr 
BLESSED  JOHN  HOUGHTON,  Prior  of  the 


86    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

London  Charterhouse.  He  is  shown  vested  for 
Mass,  holding  in  his  hands  a  Chalice,  while  at 
his  feet  are  laid  branches  of  palm.  It  was  while 
celebrating  the  Mass  of  the  Holy  Ghost  that  he 
and  his  monks  were  supernaturally  confirmed 
in  their  resolution  to  endure  death  rather  than 
fail  in  obedience  to  the  Holy  See.  This  famous 
Mass  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  paintings  in 
the  Oratory. 

THE  QUEEN  OF  MARTYRS  occupies  the 
central  position  among  these  worthy  followers 
of  Her  Son.  She  is  represented  with  the  Crown 
of  Thorns  clasped  to  her  heart,  a  majestic  figure 
of  woe,  recalling  in  pose  and  drapery  a  well- 
known  Madonna  at  Wurzburg. 

On  her  left  stands  BLESSED  SEBASTIAN 
NEWDIGATE,  the  Carthusian  monk,  shown 
fettered  in  an  upright  position  as  he  was  for 
fifteen  long  days  in  the  Marshalsea  Prison. 

Next  to  him  is  BLESSED  RICHARD  REY- 
NOLDS, "  the  Angel  of  Syon,"  in  the  Brigittine 
habit,  a  lily  growing  before  him  to  signify  the 
spotless  purity  of  his  life. 

The  last  figure  is  that  of  BLESSED  RALPH 
SHERWIN,  a  secular  Priest,  vested  in  a  Roman 
Chasuble  and  holding  St.  Peter's  keys  in  token 
of  the  cause  for  which  he  died  so  joyously.  His 
singujarly  beautiful  face,  is  youngj  and  ardent, 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  87 

THE  STAINED-GLASS  WINDOWS 

designed  and  executed  by  Miss  Margaret  Rope, 
illustrate,  by  scenes  from  the  lives  of  the  Martyrs: 

(1)  The  Eight  Beatitudes  ;  and 

(2)  The  Corporal  Works  of  Mercy. 

(i)  At  the  top  of  the  window  of  THE  BEATI- 
TUDES,   beneath    the    instruments    of    the 
Passion  and  the  inscription,  '  *  Tu  Domtne  plura 
nobis  passus  es"  is  a  medallion  with  the  Queen 
of  Martyrs  and  another,  representing  the  scene 
on   the    Mount  where   "  Christ   the    King   of 
Martyrs  expoundeth  to  His  elect   servants  the 
blessedness  of  those  who  suffer  for  His  love." 
In  the  other  parts  of  the  window  the  Eight  Beati- 
tudes are  illustrated.  The  first,  by  the  seraphic 
Martyr,  Ven.  Henry  Heath,  who,  while  sleeping 
on  a  London  doorstep  in  the  snow,  is  being 
seized  by  the  watch  and  carried  off  to  prison. 
Exemplifying  the  blessedness  of  the  meek,  is 
Blessed  Thomas  Woodhouse  being  struck  on  the 
face  on  his  way  to  Newgate.  Dona  Luisa  de 
Carvajal  is  represented  consoling  the  Martyrs 
in  prison  while  she  washes  their  feet.  The  subject 
of  the   fourth   Beatitude   is   young  Alexander 
Bryant.  Reaching  through  his  prison  bars  after 
cruel  racking,  he  "  seeketh  to  catch  in  his  hat 
the  drops  of  rain  wherewith  to  slake  his  thirst. 


" 


THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

The  next  four  Beatitudes  are  illustrated  by 
Ven.  James  Duckett  forgiving  and  embracing 
his  betrayer  on  the  way  to  Tyburn  ;  the  monks 
of  the  London  Charterhouse  singing  the  Mass 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  preparation  for  death  and 
being  visited  by  divine  consolations  ;  Ven.  John 
Roberts,  the  Benedictine,  reconciling  a  felon 
to  Christ's  Church  beneath  Tyburn  gallows  ; 
and  Ven.  Oliver  Plunket,  Primate  of  All  Ireland, 
administering  the  Sacrament  of  Confirmation 
to  his  hunted  sheep  on  the  mountain  side. 

(2)  In  the  CORPORAL  WORKS  OF  MERCY, 
Margaret  Ward  is  shown  Visiting  the  Im- 
prisoned." Under  the  words  '  Clothing  the 
Naked,"  we  see  Ven.  Nicholas  Horner,  a  tailor, 
of  Smithfield,  engaged  on  a  jerkin  for  a  priest  at 
the  moment  when  the  door  opens  and  an  officer 
of  the  law  comes  forward  to  arrest  him.  In 
another  scene,  Ven.  Anne  Lyne  stands  erect  on 
the  fatal  cart  beneath  Tyburn  Tree  for  having 
harboured  a  priest.  Fulfilling  the  precept  of 
"  Visiting  the  Sick,"  Ven.  John  Roberts  is  seen 
entering  a  plague-stricken  house.  In  the  two 
next  medallions  Margaret  Clement  is  "  Feeding 
the  Hungry,"  and  compassionate  onlookers 
"  Give  Drink  to  the  Thirsty  "  by  offering  a  cup 
of  wine  to  Ven.  Edward  Morgan  on  the  way  to 
the  gallows.  The  last  shows  Dona  Luisa  de 


\ 


Cfje  IpreDictton  of  Cpfautn 
Contient 

Ibere  <3re0org  (Bunne,  a  venerable  priest 
conte60ina  Cbvist  before  bi0  jufcges, 
preDictetb  tbat  one  oag  a  religions  bouse 
sball  be  foimfcefc  at  ^bnrn  in  bononr  of 
tbe 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  89 

Carvajal  receiving  the  relics  of  Ven.  John 
Roberts  and  Ven.  Thomas  Somers,  which 
noble  Spaniards  have  rescued  in  order  to  give 
them  honourable  burial. 

Another  medallion  in  this  window  depicts 
the  crowning  by  Our  Lord  in  Heaven  of  His 
Martyrs,  and  beneath  is  "  The  Prediction  of 
Tyburn  Convent."  The  venerable  Confessor 
of  the  Faith,  Father  Gregory  Gunne,  brought 
before  the  judges  on  the  8th  June,  1585,  is  shown 
making  his  famous  prophecy  that  one  day  a  reli- 
gious house  would  be  established  at  Tyburn. 
Just  above  the  heads  of  his  judges  a  glimpse  is 
given  of  the  actual  Chapel  of  Exposition  with  two 
Nuns  in  adoration  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 

PAINTINGS. 

BENEDICTINE  APOSTLES  AND  MAR- 
TYRS OF  ENGLAND.  The  Holy  Patriarch  of 
Western  Monks  is  surrounded  by  ten  of  his 
most  illustrious  sons,  among  whom  Ven.  Oliver 
Plunket  has  been  included,  perhaps  on  the 
probability  that  he  was  a  Benedictine  Oblate  as 
some  maintain,  but  principally  because  his 
relics  are  preserved  at  Downside  Abbey.  He  is 
rightly  associated  with  seven  other  glorious 
Tyburn  Martyrs  :  John  Roberts,  Maurus 
Scot,  Alban  Roe,  George  Gervase,  Thomas 

G 


9o    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

Pickering,  Mark    Barkworth,  Philip  Powel,  all 
of  whom  the  Church  has  declared  Venerable. 
On  each  side  of  St.  Benedict  are  two  important 
figures,  those  of  the  Apostles  of  England — St. 
Gregory  the  Great  and  St.  Augustine  of  Canter- 
bury.  Above  is  this  inscription  :    *  Ecce  ego  et 
pueri  mei,"  "  Behold,  here  am  I  and  my  child- 
ren," words  most  appropriate  if  we  consider 
what    the    Benedictine    Order    has    done    for 
England,  how  many  of  its  members  died  for  the 
faith  at  Tyburn,  and  also  that  this  painting  is 
the  work  of  a  Benedictine,  Dame  Catherine  of 
St.  Bride's,  and  that  it  adorns  the  walls  of  a 
Convent  where  the    Rule  of  St.  Benedict    is 
followed. 

THE  MASS  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST, 
painted  by  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Bering.  Here  the 
Martyr,  Blessed  John  Houghton,  is  seen  eleva- 
ting the  Sacred  Host  while  at  the  same  time  the 
heavens  open  and  the  vision  thus  vouchsafed  to 
him  and  the  Community  strengthen  them  for 
the  cruel  death  they  are  preparing  to  face. 

FOUR  ANCIENT  PRINTS  represent  the 
same  holy  Carthusian  Prior  in  the  company  of 
two  others  equally  famous,  Blessed  Augustine 
Webster  and  Blessed  Robert  Lawrence,  all  of 
whom  suffered  on  the  4th  May,  1535. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  91 

BLESSED  EDMUND  CAMPION'S  por- 
trait is  particularly  beautiful.  It  was  specially 
copied  from  the  original  at  Rome,  and  besides 
its  artistic  worth,  it  is  treasured  by  the  Tyburn 
nuns  as  having  been  presented  by  His  Em. 
Cardinal  Vaughan  to  the  Community  during 
the  first  year  of  its  residence  here  and  only  a 
few  weeks  before  his  death. 

Other  portraits  in  the  Oratory  are  those  of 
VEN.  OLIVER  PLUNKET,  which  always 
arrests  Irish  visitors,  BLESSED  RICHARD 
REYNOLDS  and  BLESSED  JOHN  FISHER. 
That  of  VEN.  PHILIP  HOWARD,  EARL  OF 
ARUNDEL,  is  the  gift  of  one  of  his  descend- 
ants. Philip  Howard  died  in  prison,  and  the 
racking  and  other  sufferings  he  endured  for 
ten  years  won  for  him  the  title  of  Venerable, 
which  he  shares  with  his  grandson,  Ven.  William 
Howard,  executed  in  1680  on  Tower  Hill. 

LIST   OF   RELICS   OF   THE   MARTYRS 
KEPT  IN  THE  ORATORY. 

(This  list  is  made  up  to  the  year  1916). 

FIRST  RELIQUARY. 

From  the  finger  of  Ven.  John  Roberts, 
Priest,  O.S.B.,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  Decem- 
ber loth,  1610. 


92    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

SECOND  RELIQUARY. 

From  the  Corporal  used  by  Ven.  John  Baptist 
Bullaker,  O.F.M.,  at  his  last  Mass  and  dipped 
in  the  blood  of  the  said  Martyr  (Ven.  J.  B. 
Bullaker  was  martyred  at  Tyburn,  October  i2th, 
1642).  From  the  bones  of  Ven.  Ambrose  Barlow, 
Priest,  O.S.B.,  martyred  at  Lancaster,  Septem- 
ber loth,  1641. 

From  the  bones  of  Ven.  Thomas  Somers, 
Secular  Priest,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  December 
loth,  1610. 

From  the  bones  of  Ven.  John  Almond,  Secular 
Priest,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  December  5th, 
1612. 

From  the  tibia  of  Ven.  A.  Francis  Bell,  O.F.M., 
martyred  at  Tyburn,  nth  December,  1643. 

From  the  Corporal  dipped  in  the  blood  of 
Ven.  Paul  of  St.  Magdalen  Heath,  O.F.M., 
martyred  at  Tyburn,  April  lyth,  1643. 

From  a  linen  cloth  dipped  in  the  blood  of  an 
English  Martyr  of  whom  God  knows  the  name. 

N.B. — This  Reliquary  contains  also  a  few 
beads  of  the  Rosary  of  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of 
Scots. 

THIRD  RELIQUARY. 

Relic  of  Ven.  Edmund  Catherick,  Priest, 
martyred  at  York,  April  i3th,  1642. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  93 

From  the  rope  with  which  Ven.  Peter  Wright, 
S.J.,  was  hanged  at  Tyburn,  May  i9th,  1651. 

Of  Ven.  John  Rockwood,  Priest,  martyred  at 
York,  April  i3th,  1642. 

Of  Ven.  Francis  Bell,  O.F.M.,  martyred  at 
Tyburn,  December  nth,  1643. 

From  the  body  of  Ven.  Oliver  Plunket,  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  July 
I5th,  1681. 

Blood  of  Ven.  Philip  Evans,  S.J.,  Priest, 
martyred  at  Cardiff,  July  22nd,  1679. 

Blood  of  Ven.  Henry  Heath  (Paul  of  St. 
Magdalen),  O.F.M.,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  April 
i7th,  1643. 

From  the  lower  jaw  of  Ven.  Thomas  White- 
bread,  Provincial  S.J.,  martyred  at  Tyburn, 
June  20th,  1679. 

From  the  lower  jaw  of  Ven.  William  Andleby, 
Priest,  martyred  at  York,  July  4th,  1597. 

Blood  of  the  five  Jesuit  Fathers  martyred  at 
Tyburn,  Friday,  June  2oth,  1679,  VV.  John 
Fenwick,  John  Gavan  or  Green,  William  Har- 
court,  Antony  Turner,  Thomas  Whitebread 
(these  were  victims  of  the  infamous  Titu:> 
Oates). 

Of  Ven.  Thomas  Somers,  Secular  Priest,  mar- 
tyred at  Tyburn,  December  loth,  1610. 

From  the  heart  of  an  English  martyr  which 


94    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

leaped  out  of  the  fire  in  which  it  was  being  con- 
sumed (probably  Ven.  Edward  Morgan,  Secular 
Priest,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  April  26th,  1642). 

From  the  blood-stained  alb  in  which  a  Priest 
of  the  Holden  family  was  martyred  at  the  Altar 
at  Chargley,  in  Lancashire. 

Ven.  John  Wall,  O.F.M.,  Priest,  martyred  in 
Worcester,  August  22nd,  1679. 

From  the  skin  of  an  English  martyr  found 
beneath  the  Altar  of  the  Benedictine  Monastery 
at  Douai. 

FOURTH  RELIQUARY. 

Bone  of  the  forearm  of  the  Ven.  Thomas 
Maxfield,  Secular  Priest,  martyred  at  Tyburn, 
July  ist,  1616.  This  relic  was  the  gift  of  His 
Lordship  the  Bishop  of  Tuy,  in  Spain. 

Portion  of  linen  and  straw  stained  with  the 
blood  of  the  five  Jesuit  Martyrs  (June  2Oth, 
1679). 

From  the  bones  of  Ven.  Ambrose  Barlow, 
O.S.B.,  martyred  at  Lancaster,  Sept.  loth,  1641, 

From  corporal  stained  with  the  blood  of  Ven. 
Henry  (Paul  of  St.  Magdalen)  Heath,  O.F.M. 

From  the  corporal  used  by  Ven.  Thomas 
(John  Baptist)  Bullaker,  O.F.M.,  at  his  last  Mass 
and  imbued  with  his  blood. 

From  the  blood  of  a  Martyr  whose  name  God 
knows. 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  95 

From  a  muscle  of  Ven.  John  Lockwood,  Priest, 
martyred  at  York,  April  i3th,  1642,  aged  87. 

A  vertebra  cut  through  by  the  executioner  of 
Ven.  John  Lockwood,  P.M. 

Tape  from  round  the  coffin  at  Douai  of  Ven. 
John  Southworth,  martyred  at  Tyburn,  June 
28th,  1654. 

In  the  same  reliquary  is  a  miniature  of  Ven. 
William  Ward,  Secular  Priest,  martyred  at 
Tyburn,  July  26th,  1641. 


Half  of  a  corporal  used  by  Blessed  Edmund 
Campion  and  other  holy  Martyrs  and  Confessors 
during  the  persecution  under  Elizabeth. 


SOME  NOTES  ON  TYBURN  CONVENT 

THE    Nuns   of  Tyburn  are  under  the  Rule 
of  St.  Benedict.  Their  Congregation  is  dedi- 
cated to  the    Most  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus, 
and  was  founded  at  Montmartre — Mons  Martyr- 
um — which   has   become    the     Mount   of  the 
Sacred  Heart. 

Tyburn  Convent  dates  from  1903,  the 
Nuns  of  Montmartre  having  been  asked,  on 
their  arrival  in  England,  by  His  Eminence 
Cardinal  Vaughan  to  establish  on  the  place 
formerly  called  Tyburn  Field  a  Sanctuary 
in  honour  of  the  Sacred  Heart  and  as  a 
memorial  of  the  105  Martyrs — priests,  re- 
ligious of  many  Orders,  laymen  and  women — 
who,  from  1535  to  1681,  suffered  at  Tyburn  in 
defence  of  the  Catholic  Faith  and  for  their 
fidelity  to  the  See  of  Peter.  The  Tyburn  Nuns 
have  the  joy  of  thinking  that  this  design  of  the 
Heart  of  Jesus  had  been  foreseen  more  than 
three  hundred  years  ago  by  a  venerable  con- 
fessor of  the  Faith,  Father  Gregory  Gunne,  who, 
dragged  before  the  judges  on  June  the  8th,  1585, 
publicly  predicted  a  day  would  come  when  a 
Religious  House  would  be  erected  at  Tyburn. 
Now,  close  to  the  site  where  formerly  stood 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  97 

the  gallows,  is  the  Altar  of  Sacrifice  and  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  is  perpetually  exposed. 

Tyburn  draws  daily  many  Catholics  and 
even  non- Catholics  to  the  feet  of  the  King  of 
Martyrs.  Moreover  a  triduum  with  special 
sermons  is  held  every  year  preparatory  to  the 
Feast  of  the  Blessed  English  Martyrs  (May  4th) 
which  is  solemnly  celebrated  at  Tyburn. 
Another  triduum  in  honour  of  Blessed  Cuthbert 
Mayne  and  Blessed  Edmund  Campion  is  held 
from  November  2Qth  to  December  ist.  On  the 
last  Sunday  in  April  the  Walk  from  Newgate 
to  Tyburn  '  takes  place  when  many  hundreds 
of  pilgrims  come  in  devout  procession  along 
the  once-time  Way  of  Sorrows  on  which  the 
Martyrs  were  dragged  on  hurdles.  From  March 
4th  to  March  i2th,  Tyburn  is  the  centre  of  an 
annual  Novena  organized  by  the  Guild  of  Our 
Lady  of  Ransom,  for  the  conversion  of  England 
and  of  individuals. 

It  has  appeared  very  appropriate  that  the 
Divine  Heart  should  be  perpetually  adored  and 
should  reign  over  the  place  where  so  many  of 
His  Martyrs  had  their  hearts  torn  from  their 
breasts  after  having  been  cut  down  while  still 
breathing  from  the  gibbet.  It  is  the  hope  of  all 
who  know  Tyburn  and  love  the  Sacred  Heart 
that  a  worthy  Sanctuary  may  here  be  built,  to 


98    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

replace  the  present  temporary  chapel,  where 
the  King  of  Martyrs  may  be  adored  for  many 
generations  in  the  Sacrament  of  His  love  and 
that  from  these  humble  beginnings  Tyburn  may 
become  to  England  what  Montmartre  is  to 

France. 

*        *        *        *        « 

According  to  the  end  of  their  Congregation, 
the  Tyburn  Nuns,  consecrated  to  the  Heart  of 
Jesus,  unite  themselves  to  the  intentions  of  that 
Adorable  Heart  burning  with  zeal  for  the  glory 
of  the  Most  Holy  Trinity  and  for  the  salvation 
of  souls.  They  devote  themselves  to  the  Divine 
Praise  and  to  the  Adoration  of  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  and  endeavour  to  obtain  through 
the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  abundant  graces  for 
the  Holy  Church  and  all  mankind. 

They  are  placed  under  the  maternal  Patron- 
age of  the  Blessed  and  Immaculate  Virgin  Mary. 
After  the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  special  protectress 
of  their  Congregation  is  St.  Gertrude,  the 
glorious  Benedictine  virgin,  who  so  lovingly 
contemplated  and  magnificently  glorified  the 
treasures  of  the  Heart  of  Jesus. 

The  Nuns  of  this  Order  are  called  primarily 
to  the  contemplative  life.  It  is  in  union  with  the 
Adorable  Sacrifice  of  the  Altar  and  in  the  in- 
effable treasures  which  flow  from  the  daily 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN  99 

reception  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  that  they  find 
their  greatest  support.  No  work  must  be  pre- 
ferred in  the  Congregation  to  the  Work  of  God 
and  the  Eucharistic  service.  Every  day,  in  union 
with  the  praises  which  the  Heart  of  Jesus  ad- 
dresses unceasingly  to  the  Holy  Trinity,  they 
offer  to  God  the  sacrifice  of  praise  so  closely 
bound  to  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Altar.  The  Gre- 
gorian chant  is  always  used  for  the  singing  at 
Mass  and  Divine  Office. 

Night  and  day,  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
exposed,  the  Nuns  offer  their  adorations  in 
homage  of  honour,  of  praise  and  love,  in  gratitude 
and  reparation,  in  supplication  for  the  needs  of 
the  Holy  Church,  and  for  the  extension  of  the 
Reign  of  the  Sacred  Heart  throughout  the 
world. 

The  ideal  of  their  life  is  that  it  should  be  a 
continual  Opus  Dei  by  striving  after  perfection 
by  prayer,  sacrifice  and  zeal  to  this  great  end 
marked  by  the  Holy  Rule  :  "  Ut  in  omnibus 

y 

glorificetur  Dens." 

If  their  white  cowl  symbolizes  contemplation, 
eucharistic  adoration  and  Divine  Praise,  the 
black  habit,  scapular  and  veil  represent  the 
poverty,  penance  and  labour  which  they  have 
likewise  embraced. 

The  Community  may  also  employ  itself  in 


ioo    THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 

works  of  zeal,  properly  so  called,  such  as 
eucharistic  and  liturgical  works,  retreats,  in- 
struction of  converts,  provided  these  works  be 
compatible  with  contemplative  life  and  the 
enclosure. 

The  Benedictine  Congregation  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  Jesus  of  Montmartre  has  this  feature  as 
yet  rare  among  Benedictine  Nuns  of  being  under 
the  government  of  a  Superioress  General. 

Every  Convent  of  the  Congregation  contracts 
a  special  obligation  of  devotedness  for  the  con- 
version or  the  religious  progress  of  the  country 
wherein  it  is  established.  Consequently  the 
Convent  of  Tyburn  is  devoted — and  that  by  a 
special  Vow — to  the  great  cause  of  the  return 
of  England  to  Catholic  unity.  Under  the  pro- 
tection of  Our  Lady  and  the  Martyrs,  the  Nuns 
strive  by  prayer  and  penance  to  raise  unceasingly 
towards  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  the  great 
supplication  which  burst  forth  at  the  supreme 
moment  from  the  heart  of  one  of  the  most 
glorious  heroes  of  Tyburn  :  "  Jesus,  convert 
England  !  Jesus,  have  mercy  on  this  Country ! ' 


The  Sacred  Heart  in  increasing  the  number 
of  the  Tyburn  Community  has  already  enabled  it 
to  make  two  foundations  :  one  in  1909  at 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN          roi 

Brussels  on  that  hill  of  Koekelberg,  where  will 
stand  the  National  Basilica  erected  by  Belgium 
to  the  glory  of  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  ;  the 
second  in  1916  at  Royston,  in  Herts. 


THE  VOW  MADE  BY  THE  COMMUNITY 
OF  TYBURN  FOR  THE  CONVERSION  OF 

ENGLAND. 

(Renewed  Annually). 

O JESUS,  Immortal  King  of  Ages,  Sover- 
eign of  Nations,  Who  envelopeth  all  man- 
kind in  the  Love  of  Thy  Divine  Heart. 

Humbly  prostrate  before  Thee,  we  present 
in  our  hearts,  England,  the  land  which  Thou 
hast  so  much  loved,  and  which  we  love,  and  we 
adore  Thee  as  her  Divine  Redeemer.  We  re- 
member all  the  graces  Thou  hast  lavished  upon 
this  Island,  Thy  Mother's  Dowry,  and  we  unite 
our  thanksgivings  to  all  those  offered  to  Thee 
in  past  ages,  and  which  will  be  eternally  ad- 
dressed to  Thee  in  Heaven  by  the  Blessed 
Martyrs  and  all  the  other  Saints  of  this  Country. 

The  cruel  ravisher  of  souls  has  tried  to  draw 
from  Thee  this  nation  for  ever  !  How  many 
tabernacles  are  empty  !  How  many  souls  have 
strayed  away  !  Thy  Heart  has  been  wounded  ! 
We  will  labour  to  repair  the  offences  done  to 
Thee. 

Thou  hast  ever  so  loved  this  land  !  .  .  . 
Thou  ceasest  not  to  call  her  with  an  infinite  love. 
May  she  return  at  Thy  merciful  calling,  may 


MARTYRS  OF  TYBURN          103 

she  come  back  to  the  source  of  life,  may  she  be 
Thy  beloved  daughter,  faithful  and  devoted  ! 
Full  of  power,  she  will  repair  her  errors  by 
making  known  the  love  of  Thy  Divine  Heart 
wherever  her  vast  empire  extends  ! 

O  Jesus,  we  desire  to  hasten  that  happy  day 
by  prayer,  adoration,  penance  and  zeal. 

This  Convent  of  Tyburn,  devoted  to  the 
great  ends  of  our  religious  family,  has  received 
as  its  own  and  most  special  mission  that  of 
representing  England  unceasingly  before  Thy 
Adorable  Heart,  and  the  Community  has  vowed 
itself  to  offer  its  adorations  and  prayers  by 
night  and  day,  in  a  special  manner  for  England, 
and  particularly  for  the  return  to  the  Holy 
Church  of  the  children  of  this  great  nation,  who 
are  yet  separated  from  the  One  True  Fold. 
Lord  Jesus,  we  renew  to-day  this  Vow  and  this 
Offering,  and  we  present  them  to  Thy  Sacred 
Heart  through  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  our 
Holy  Father  St.  Benedict,  whose  children  brought 
the  Faith  to  this  Country  and  the  glorious 
Martyrs  who  shed  their  blood  at  Tyburn. 

O  Jesus,  may  the  day  soon  come  when  all 
England  shall  sing  :  "  Praise  be  to  the  Divine 
Heart  through  which  salvation  has  come  to  us  ! 
To  Him  be  honour  and  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen." 


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